


Finding Heaven

by AikoIsari



Series: Digimon No Verse [45]
Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Xros Wars | Digimon Fusion
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blood and Violence, Canon Rewrite, Canon Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, Coming of Age, Gen, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Reverse Chronology, Roleswap, Self-Esteem Issues, Trauma, world building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-04-26
Packaged: 2019-03-01 21:43:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 35,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13303857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AikoIsari/pseuds/AikoIsari
Summary: All children want to be heroes. Akashi Tagiru wants to shine, to outshine the boy who died. Amano Yuu is everything he could ever need to shine, as is the strange boy with the spider tattoo. But then Yuu introduces him to the Hunt for Paradise, and the very real possibility that something worse happened to Kudo Taiki than death.





	1. You're All In

**Author's Note:**

> warnings: blood, violence, ptsd, slight character alterations, slight timeskip from canon, trauma.

Kudo Taiki was dying.

Yuu knew this in his bones. He knew it wasn't his fault. He knew it had nothing to do with Hell's Field and everything to do with Superior Mode and DarknessBagramon flinging attacks that could kill a universe, never mind a person. He knew it had everything to do with the fact that they'd left their backs undefended at a terrible time. To be fair, no one had expected anyone to move, all of the human race had been petrified. Which meant that wasn't a human who had taken a weapon and stabbed them with it.

Not that Yuu would come to this conclusion until later. After all, they had just won. And their leader, the guy who had donned a Messiah complex to save the world, was now bleeding out for real under Yuu's fingers. It was nothing like he had imagined it would have been in the game. It was nothing so freeing and full of triumph. If his idealistic nonsense had needed a final nail in the coffin, here it was.

Blissfully, Taiki was too busy focusing on breathing to try saying stupid and inspiring. Akari was shoving Kiriha's jacket over it and the others were helping and he coughed and coughed and-

Shoutmon Xros 7 Superior Mode moved to kneel, to try and help-

And the world was awash in green and gold.

* * *

Akashi Tagiru was a self-aware individual.

He had no doubts that when it came to life that he was painfully average and knowing it made everything all the more unbearable. Case in point, right now, as his teacher disregarded him after passing him his latest English score. It wasn't bad per se. It could have been worse. But the could have been better nagged at his ordinary life, nagged at the desire to function like that head higher. Like, as sad and pathetic as it sounded, another boy in his class.

Amano Yuu glanced back at him as he passed the next worksheet and Tagiru made a face, wrinkling his nose in distaste. The boy frowned and turned back around, and Tagiru slumped his shoulders down with relief.

Yuu was his goal to be so to speak. He wasn't quite as good as the former star of his school, but that was a star who had been overcome by his own light. That was just not done. And this stupid seventy-two staring him in the face wasn't helping at all. But then, he was already screwed because the guy spoke English at home or something didn't he?

Tagiru gave up on his own self-monologue and went back to his notes. It wouldn't have been quite so bad if the mistakes, looking back, weren't completely obvious. So he scrambled down words all the faster, his messy scrawl all over the page the biggest setback if there ever was one. Oh well, he'd work it out. His mom could read it and she wanted to, to stay modern or something.

Still, when lunch rolled around, Tagiru was all too eager to bolt out of the classroom to the cafeteria. He was even more eager for the day to end.

* * *

Amano Yuu watched Tagiru go. Then, he went to get his bag. Mami, two seats down, was also watching Tagiru's back, but with much more distaste. Not that Yuu could blame her. He had been in the room when said spiky-haired kid had shoved a rotten egg sandwich, open-faced, into her lap. The school had heard about it of course, but there was something uniquely humiliating about the experience in front of the person you crushed on.

And Yuu had no illusions that was how Mami felt about him. Not anymore.

He smiled at her. "Don't worry, I don't think he'll do it again."

Mami deflated and smiled at him in the same span of a minute. "I know, Yuu-sama-" He winced, and she shook her head apologetically. "Yuu-kun, just too many years with him. You're lucky you were a transfer."

He laughed sheepishly. "I'm not sure about that..." After all, it was either transfer away from the people who knew him as an antisocial little snot or go with his sister to another country and attempt to learn Chinese. It was an easy guess as to where and what he was going to do. Besides, circumstances made options less and less realistic. Such was life.

"Well, this school's a breeze compared to your old escalator one," she commented with a sigh. "My brother tried to go there. He had a nervous breakdown at the end of the first semester."

"Most people do," he said freely, opening his bento. "Including me." His had just been… more violent than others. And not on Earth soil. "I was just lucky enough to have supportive family and friends at the time."

Mami sighed. "We tried. He just locked up."

"People bully in that school," Yuu said gently, thanking and praising the meal. "It's inevitable in such a competitive environment."

"Mm."

Yuu preferred this, her casual speeches to her fawning adoration. Whether it was deserved or not didn't matter, it just didn't… it didn't belong to him.

Still, if it was the worst thing he had to deal with in this world, that was fine. He was happy with that.

Eventually, his thoughts turned to Tagiru again. Not in a bad way, but in a sleepy, acknowledging sort of way. He did feel the guy glaring at his back all through class after all when Tagiru thought he wasn't paying attention. Not to mention every grumble after homework, every mutter and destroyed set of notes. Yuu hadn't survived a war and gotten out useless, after all. He knew a competitive idiot when he saw one.

He didn't quite mean to smile about it, but the thought gave him an idea. And ideas were always a source of entertainment. He paused Mami's genuinely interesting talk about her brother and his ability in the sciences (He would have to meet him, might serve as a good distraction) and went to his phone.

"Hey, spider," he said softly. "Get me a key. I think we have someone else."

* * *

Beneath the trees of a seemingly innocuous park, something started to creak. There was little thought in the plant's mind, just a simplistic urging upward. Its roots slithered and groaned, squirming out like horrid tentacles. As one reached gleefully towards the sunlight, a mouth chomped down over its tip. It screamed and no one heard it. Plants weren't sentient enough to make a sound, after all. Stubby blue legs stuck up in the air as it chewed like a distended Pacman or a demonic Kirby.

Tobari Ren could never tell the difference with this guy. But it did him good. It was easier to feed Dracmon actual digimon than, well, his minor allowance. Was it sick and cannibalistic? It was likely. Did he care? Not particularly. A job was a job in the end, right?

And Yuu really had given him an awful job. Well, it was more of a request really. Didn't matter. He had still said yes like the idiot he was.

Still. Ren couldn't help his smile. Frowning would only drag the whole thing down. "Got him tagged. Airu! Get ready!"

There was a low noise of affirmation. Then there was the familiar sound of something exploding and a car backfiring yards away.

The Blossommon shrieked. Ren laughed, his short blue locks dancing in the air as it gave a sickening shiver of cold for summer.

"Sorry, buddy," he said, not really meaning it. "But you're going to the game." He reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a teal microphone with a screen. "Now..." He smiled towards nothing in particular. "Let's see how far you reach."

He held out the device in front of him, routinely used to the utter banal cheesiness of it all. "Time shift."

The world  _warped._

* * *

Feed.

The food that awaits is covered in moss. Something awaits, something deep and dark and cool, like the arctic sea.

Tagiru, eyes closed, sketched quickly, remembering, recalling -

_Green and red mix in the water like holly and threads of fate someone said. Green and red tied with gold, poured out and out, on and on. There was no siren fast enough._

Tagiru paused, made a face, then took out his ruler. Then, without hesitation, he went right back to it, clinging hard to the images in his brain. The pencil lead broke, he reloaded it. Silence. It was one of the few times Akashi Tagiru was silent and still. You couldn't tremble while you were drawing. If you could, it meant erasing possible hours of work. And while Tagiru was used to getting things wrong the first time, erasing the right marks just-

Someone yelled outside and Tagiru almost dug the pencil into the paper. He groaned in exasperation and put the pencil to the side. The images in his head bled out of his ears and onto the floor. Sighing, he sat back. "Well, at least I got  _somewhere_ ," he muttered to himself, beginning to pack his things. None of the others were getting up, of course, but the only way for him to get his thoughts in order was to go for a run and come back later. He put his things away into his bag, unintentionally looking around the room.

"And to think you didn't want to be in art club," mused the vice-president behind him, putting down her brush. "Look at you now, Tagiru-kun. Actually making lines that turn into shapes."

"If we weren't in a classroom, I'd punch you Sudo," Tagiru said, scowling just enough to attempt to look serious.

"I wouldn't dare," Sudo Miho said, still not looking up. "You need all the brain cells you can get next month."

It took Tagiru a minute to swing that sentence back around. "You're so mean! Why are we friends again?"

"Yes," Miho said dryly. "It can't be because we're neighbors. Or family friends. Or-"

"Stop invoking anime tropes!" Tagiru grumbled. "Only I can do that."

"Then get on it, you closet mangaka."

Tagiru almost asked if that was an insult. Then he thought better of it and marched away with his head held high and his bag over his shoulder. As he walked down the hall, his eyes caught a glimpse of the basketball courts across the street, players moving in quick bursts across the field. A surge of envy filled his heart.

"You're too reckless," he mocked under his breath, thinking of the team captain. Hah. So what if he was? He was still going to do it, wasn't he? Then it was fine to stick his head out once in a while. Or a lot. Or all the time.

He bet that sub player would have let him. Taiki-senpai, that kid who just showed up and struck wins wherever he went. He would have given Tagiru a chance. Except... Well, that wasn't today. He would have to find another team. One that  _saw him._

"Do you always talk to yourself when you're annoyed?"

Tagiru didn't even look up at first. "Yeah! It sounds better." Then he did look up and saw periwinkle eyes and blond hair. "Wah! Yuu! What are you doing here?" He scrambled backward, hands clutched tightly around his bag by reflex. "D-Don't you have a club or something?"

Yuu raised an eyebrow. "Not today, no." He smiled and something about that smile made Tagiru's shoulders straighten.

"Yeah?" He used his spare centimeters of height to look down at Yuu. "What? Is there something on my face?"

It was good to antagonize Yuu, at least a little, to get a bit of a hot glare under the collar. It never really worked, or at least his anger was more of exasperation than actual, you know, anger. Better than he know Tagiru had been there to hear him scream, had been conscious and seen-

_He'd heard the shout that echoed around the universe. It felt like that, even though he was frozen in the grass, he had seen the monsters falling from the sky and he had felt a rush, such a rush. A heady feeling of belonging and longing._

_And then two monsters clashing, striking hard enough that Tagiru could feel their echo, feel their agony and pain and he was still stuck in this tiny pocket of… somewhere. He couldn't see still but he didn't have to, that sight, that everything was beautiful._

_And then it had all turned black and crumbled-_

A piece of paper landing in his hand caused Tagiru to blink. "Uh."

Yuu stepped away from him and Tagiru looked down to correct himself. It was… actually a piece of vibrant plastic with a single black line down one side."Why did you give me a hotel key card?"

Yuu snorted, "It's not. It's a safety net." He smiled again and Tagiru felt a horrible urge to punch it. "In case you decide to get into trouble. You'll get some help."

Okay, Tagiru was going to change his mind about Yuu. He was just a weirdo. "You need to go to the nurse?" Not that he was that concerned about the guy but people did not just give away hotel key cards from nowhere.

"Nope," Yuu spoke the single word with casual finality. "But you're not much better. People don't just stare longingly across the grounds of a school unless they're in love with someone or something."

"You mean like you and your posse?" Tagiru shot back.

Yuu let out a laugh. "I didn't know you knew what a 'posse' meant."

Tagiru made a face. "Slow, not stupid, nerd."

"If nerd is the best you've got, you need to hire someone to run your insults by."

"Hey!"

Yuu waved a hand in complete dismissal. Tagiru felt his eyes flare with heat. Jerk. "Look. Let me talk and I'll leave you to your wistful gazing."

Okay, that did it. As soon as he surpassed him, he would be a better person. By far. Tagiru, as far as he was concerned, already was. "What." Tagiru kept his voice amazingly flat.

Yuu exhaled slowly, thinking his words over. Tagiru watched his face, suddenly feeling that full body urge to  _run_  like you ran from a snarling dog off its leash. Run from Amano Yuu and never look back or feel bad because that wasn't nerves or anything like that. That was the look his dad got when a boring business meeting might turn the fate of the company the next day, or his mother plotted to justify taking away his game systems for his health. "You saw what happened a few years ago, didn't you?"

Tagiru felt his heart stumble to a halt, pinned by those blue eyes turning sharp and pitying. "Well, I-"

"Yeah, I figured as much." Yuu cut him off too casually like he'd already anticipated hearing that answer. "Everyone who I give those cards too saw what happened with the Digimon, somehow. Even if it was just through dreams."

No accusations. No complaints that he had just stood there and let that final moment happen. None of that 'if you had been there, why didn't you help?' Which even Tagiru knew that wasn't going to happen. It just didn't make sense. What did he have to feel guilty for? "So… what?" He said, instead of trying to force his brain to understand. "What does that have to do with me?"

Yuu grinned with the mischief of a puppy with the sock already in their mouth. "That battle was the end of a war, a war that took up a world's worth of people. We thought it was over after that, we were busy with other things, and all. But then we heard from the king, about a year ago. Some of those final criminals, some idiots with a little bit of a big ego, decided to come over to this side, and see what mayhem they could cause. So he asked for help to catch ithem. We can't do it ourselves, though. You see where this is going?"

Tagiru was already grinning himself now, a big, hearty smile that he just couldn't help. That sounded  _tough._  That sounded dangerous. That sounded like trouble and a good few scrapes.

"Yeah," he agreed. "You're nuts."

Yuu's grin only widened. "Paradise isn't free, Akashi."

It was spoken with the shameless camaraderie of a salesman, with a sales pitch, even. But Tagiru soaked it up before he could really tell himself not to.

"All right," he said without even missing a beat. "I'm in."

* * *

It had been so easy to get him.

Watching Tagiru bolt away at Mach speed, Yuu knew he had admittedly dragged it out too long. Tagiru had started to think he was crazy and not worth talking to and the guy didn't strike him as the kind of person who would worry about that when it came to other people. He should have just given Tagiru the card and let his curiosity do the rest. If he threw it away despite the fact that it had immediately turned red after put into his hand, well. TO be fair, he'd been lost in his head for a minute there. Who would have thought?

Still, he hadn't meant to talk like that. But… something about Tagiru gave him this terrible little urge to  _push_  and see how much he could get in return. It was almost like his rivalries, his fights as a general. Just safer, less diabolical and potentially life-threatening. Yuu shook his head. He'd just have to avoid him for a while from now on.

"Hey, Yuu."

Yuu glanced at the golden device on his belt. "Mm?"

"Something's close."

Yuu got off of the bench he had been sitting on. "Ren and the others must have found something. Let's get going."

"Finally," groused the voice. "Something to do."

"Poor you, so infinitely bored," Yuu said with a drawl. He unclipped his Xros Loader. "Let's get moving Gumdramon."

"Got it!"


	2. Welcome to the Edge of the World

Tagiru valued honesty, which meant he believed almost nothing of what Yuu had told him before he himself had realized that it was late as heck and he needed to get home. It wasn't that Yuu hadn't told him the truth in what he had said, it was that he hadn't told him nearly much of anything that he needed to know. And that was lying by omission. His dad had negotiated him out of that one when he was seven and tried to lie about not doing specific sections of his chores. So he could tell when people tried to do the same thing. And that was exactly what Yuu had done.

Granted, he'd done it just well enough that Tagiru was still tempted to not chuck the card into the nearest paper shredder and watch the chaos that would ensue, but still! IT was the principle of the manipulation. Or something. Anyway.

Something about it had to be true. After all, why would he have referenced the monsters in the sky, even vaguely, if it wasn't true? No one talked it, everyone he knew (especially Miho, actually) in fact looked at him like he was crazy about it if he ever doodled it on his worksheets or as he had for the first week after, spouted the good and exciting bits for anyone to hear.

Coincidentally, that was exactly why Mami hated him right now. She had  _laugh_ _ed_  at it, claimed all sorts of things. He was lying, he hadn't even been involved (he hadn't but that wasn't the point!), etc. And besides, the sandwich had been out of date, he just hadn't felt like testing his mom into making him food. So getting yelled at was a small price to pay to make Mami just shut her face for once. They'd been at each other's throats on and off for years anyway. It wasn't like she hadn't filled his entire backpack with school glue before.

So hearing Yuu back up that he wasn't crazy (even though he had seen the jerk) made some part of himself curdle with satisfaction. Still. IT was for a cause and the cause had to do with him and this card and him and some kind of adventure.

If it wasn't for his parents, hell, if it wasn't for the fact that he was within reach of high school and every amazing job on planet earth awaiting him and his skills (maybe pro sports, or something with animals – he liked science and animals, so sue him! - or in showbiz!), he would throw himself all the way at it feet first.

_And,_  Tagiru thought to himself,  _I'm probably gonna do that anyway._

Cause honestly? Real life was  _boring._

Real life was numbers and taxes and relationships that were only good at their bare minimum. Real life was settling down and making no waves.

How useless was that?

Tagiru twirled the card in his hand as he ran down the street, almost dropping it in his jog in place. He wiped sweat from his forehead, giving up the job and yanking his goggles off of his head. "Some good luck charm you are," he told them, pocketing them and the card before he dashed across the street again. It was only May. They weren't supposed to get heat waves until July. Maybe global warming was real after all.

… He probably needed to worry about that once he was sure he wasn't grounded.

He was almost down his block in the rows of little houses when the hot air grew suddenly cloying and for a moment, the darkening sky wasn't dark at all. It was a bright, sickly yellow and the rising moon was a high sun that looked like a scab, or his idea of a blood clot.

_Gross._

The air stank of moss and mold, earthy and rotting, and Tagiru covered his nose. He clapped his other hand to the pocket where his goggles sat with that card. And it was burning. Tagiru looked to the nearest streetlight, which in the span of the seconds since everything had turned into the worst case of summer heat ever, had somehow bent at an angle. Either something had silently clocked it on its side while he wasn't looking or-

Or he had swapped realities, holy crap!

A giddy feeling swooped through his stomach. He had to be in another dimension or something, that was why everything was now sweltering hot and he could see again. He did a little jig in place for a moment before rushing off towards home again. Maybe if he headed home, he would see what it looked like, or end up back in time before curfew. It worked like that in all those horror movies he watched.

He skidded down his street, nearly crashing his head into the lamp post and ran up two blocks to find-

"What."

There was a hole in the roof of his house. Mold grew on it like termites had been eating the wood for months. It created a stray warm breeze.

All of the joy, the fun of it, drained out of Tagiru in an instant the longer he stood there. "I… what?" What the hell? Usually, alternate dimensions in the movies didn't have your house exist at all or it was different. Not destroyed and decaying. Was this the future or something?

"It could be, perhaps." A creaky voice mused from behind him. "It could also not be. Time is a quandary in DigiQuartz."

Tagiru whirled around again. "What is with weirdos and stalking me?" He locked eyes with an old, hunched over man, or tried to anyway. The man's red tinted glasses made it hard to tell if the guy actually had eyes. "Who the hell are you?"

The old man laughed. "Just an interested party. And you are a faller, are you not?" The man smiled with crooked teeth, one a chilling rotten black. "I do not see a Xros Loader, and I am certain I would have given you one and remembered. Your excitement is quite the lure. For the monsters."

"What?" So those monsters from a year ago were in this world too? "What's a Xros Loader anyway?"

The man held out a strange device, a microphone with a screen green as sea foam. "That would be this, a key item for a player."

"Boy, do you make it sound harmless." Tagiru kept his voice even, trying to keep the excitement from spilling out of his mouth and onto the floor. He couldn't help it. He sure could sell something to a person.

"Nothing is ever harmless, lad," the man croaked. "Don't think too hard. Only think of how to succeed and escape."

Tagiru reached into his pocket, unable to help himself. He held out the red card. "Will this help?"

The man croaked out a laugh, tugging on the brim of his hap. "Hoho, indeed it will young one. Don't let go of it, now. It is your only way to win."

"And how do ya win this game? Do you gotta be strong?" Because that was too easy. That was fun. The survival of the fittest game was like… an RPG thing! He knew how to do that! Kind of.

"That's how you survive the game." the man dragged out each word, lips drawn back with amusement.

Tagiru bobbed his head eagerly, not even bothering to contain himself now. Yuu needed to learn a thing or two from this guy. He knew how to be interesting! "And then what? How do you play? I'm here now right? So I'm qualified, right?"

The old man actually laughed. "Well well, look at this energy! Where was this hiding?"

Tagiru's eye twitched. "Who cares?" Then he yelped in pain. The card in his hand was too hot for his hand and before his eyes, actually melted. "Whoa!" The resulting pile of goo squirmed and warped before shifting into a form much like the thing in the old man's hand. The exception was that his was a bold crimson.

"Key item, get!' as the kids say," the man said with a grin, leaning on his cane. "Now, now, your Hunt is on! Go and find a buddy, kiddo! Then it's level clear!"

"Corny," Tagiru replied, beginning to fiddle with the toy. "But cool! Where do I-" He looked up and the old man was gone. He drooped. "Darn. Was hoping for a hint box or something." Then he grinned. "Eh, I'll figure it out myself."

And just as he looked around to pick a direction, there was a very loud explosion.

Tagiru pulled out his goggles, a smile threatening to take out his ears. "Found it!"

* * *

In most circumstances, a bug could topple its fellow plants. It would need a team of them, it would take work, but it was most definitely doable. Alone, though an ant could conquer much, there was only so far that it could succeed in the world.

A stag beetle? Well, in the face of an ugly venus flytrap blossom monster, Kokabuterimon was probably screwed.

Hence why he was booking as fast as he could past walls and as far away from those large vines as possible. There was a loud shriek of pain behind him but he didn't dare look back. "What's going on, what's going on, where am I?"

The last thing he had been doing… okay he couldn't remember the last thing he had been doing but now he was in a weird world that smelled like dead things and humans. And Digimon, but the first two scents were infinitely more prevalent. And he didn't like that.

Wheezing for air underneath his mask, the small stag beetle stopped to rest on the enclosed side of a wall. He slumped against it, struggling to understand the images his eyes were throwing at him.

"Is this… the human world?" It didn't sound like anything His Majesty's legends had thrown about, but even he had admitted it wasn't that great at the time, considering the crisis it had been going through. In fact it looked broken down and depressed.

"Close," drawled a voice just over his head. "It's DigiQuartz, a world that overlaps with it."

Kokabuterimon looked up and pieced together a small blue dragon, its hammer of a tail waving absently as it floated. Sitting next to it was a lanky blond human. At least he figured it was a human. The boy wasn't looking at him, however. He was looking in the direction of the Blossommon. Which meant it was probably close oh  _Yggdrasil_ -

"Stay there," the human said softly, a flat tone in its voice. "We've almost got it pinned. Gumdramon, you ready?"

"I have been ready for half an hour, Yuu," Gumdramon muttered. "Seriously, everyone else got the fun job."

"Everyone else got the stay still job," Yuu corrected. He raised a strange device from the holster and swiped it loosely over his other hand. "Super Evolve, here it comes."

The dragon leaped with a shout of glee, glowing gold and beginning to grow-

Then a great heaving vine slammed into the wall, obscuring human and digimon in a cloud of smoke and scattering debris everywhere. Kokabuterimon dove out of the way.

_Why me why me why me-_

And crashed into another human - maybe this really was the human world they were  _everywhere_ \- and barely avoided skewering the poor guy with his horn. As a result, he ended up flailing on his side, whining with pain and fear.

"Ow," the human grunted. "Gee, watch where you're going you goof."

"I'll do that when I'm not trying not to die!" With a great heave, Kokabuterimon rolled over onto all fours, wincing at the electricity dancing over his armor. That fall had left a real crack in his arm. His oversized feet gripped the ground and he looked back at the human who he had collided with. "Sorry, this is uh, not the time. Are you all right?" Then the  _rest_  of the situation caught up with him and he turned back around. "Wait! Human! And Gumdramon or whoever! Are you all right?"

"Should we not be?" That other human -Yuu, he thought- was standing on the roof of what had once been a house. He was smiling as cheerfully as ever. He looked away, towards the human that he had knocked over. "Oh! Tagiru!" He leaped, landing neatly on a heavy concentration of mulch. "You shouldn't be here!"

"Says you!" 'Tagiru' spat, grinning widely despite the acid in his voice. "The old man gave me a Xros Loader thing! That's more than enough!"

"You still need a Digimon to not die," Yuu countered with a wry smile, stepping towards him and brushing off his neat yellow shirt. "And you know, Hunt anything."

"Hunt?" Tagiru echoed and Kokabuterimon began to edge backward. This sounded like nothing he wanted to be a part of at all.

"Hey, Yuu!" Someone grunted and a big blue dragon leaped out of the last bit of dust, chased by large vines. Kokabuterimon shrieked and tripped over his own feet. The dragon merely scoffed, swiping them aside with his tail. "Mind using that brain of yours and giving me a hint?"

Yuu turned away. "You need to aim lower than that and shred him."

"You said Ren did that and it grew back way too fast!" The dragon started to glow a bright blue. "I'm gonna ram it!"

"Fine," Yuu said with a sigh. " Just be careful, Arresterdramon. We need to get him back in position."

A bladed flower went careening towards them, only to get struck by flames. The monster came into full view then and shrieked with rage once more. Its narrowed blue eyes snapped to look at each one of them, lingering briefly on Tagiru. Then, inexplicably, it began to back away, glowing green and retreating away further and further.

"Blowing him up," Arresterdramon announced, disappearing in a blur.

Yuu made a face.  _"Fine."_  The yellow Xros Loader burned with light, almost like a miniature sun. "Just make it quick."

Arresterdramon laughed. "You betcha! No more of your strategies this week!" With a flicker of blue he was gone, punching repeatedly into the giant flower's center. It shrieked with rage and then flew back into another building.

"From the side!" Yuu called, racing into the dust cloud. Tagiru leaped after him, having been watching the entire thing with his mouth agape. Kokabuterimon was long gone at this point, despite not knowing where to go. He'd been thankfully forgotten. "Your tail!"

"Gotcha!~" Arresterdramon turned his tail much like a dagger and thrust it forward and Tagiru heard two horrifying screams. One was loud and over his head. The other was far away and yet Tagiru swore he had heard the other voice before. He winced, suddenly feeling nauseous.

"Again!" Yuu called, not even flinching. "Lower! Take him off balance!"

"Thought I said no strategies!" Still, Arresterdramon obeyed and did it again. The next pair of screams came out more like broken gurgling. Yuu quickly raised his Xros Loader. As the Digimon fell back, it glowed green and purple, disappearing into pixels.

Yuu lowered the device and Arresterdramon landed beside him. "Did we get it?"

Yuu flicked his finger on the click wheel and grimaced, shaking his head. "Nope, the host must have managed to rescue it in time." He rubbed his eyes and Arresterdramon shrank down. "Need to head back for tonight. I'll do more recon tomorrow." He raised his Xros Loader at Gumdramon. "Sorry about that Gumdramon, we nearly had him there."

Gumdramon grunted, tail swishing dangerously. Then he looked at Tagiru. "Ain't this the idiot you tried to get earlier?"

Tagiru had been busy staring at him in wonder at first, but the utter ignorance of the little dragon made him simmer. "Who's an idiot?"

"You, chicken-skull," Gumdramon shot back without delay. "You ran right in here and coulda died. Least you could have done was make like bugboy and buzz off."

"Puns..." Yuu groaned, shaking his head. "Stop with the puns."

Gumdramon huffed. "Sorry."

Tagiru rolled his eyes. "Listen, bouncy ball, I got a Xros Loader. The old man said I could play soon as I got a partner or whatever. How am I gonna find one if I don't look?" He paused. "And if you care so much, why don't  _you_  help me?"

Gumdramon's face twisted like he'd swallowed a lemon. "How about no way in hell and thank Yggdrasil I can't?"

"You can," Yuu murmured.

Gumdramon squinted at him. "Fine. How about 'no way in hell' and 'thank Yggdrasil I won't'?"

Yuu laughed at that. "Fair, fair."

Tagiru glowered at him. What a rude little weirdo. "Why not?"

"Cause I don't like you," Gumdramon replied with a fanged grin. "You're louder than me, dumber than me, and a pile of twigs."

Tagiru took a second to process that. Then Yuu zapped Gumdramon into the Xros Loader before Tagiru could wring his tiny neck, leaving Tagiru to awkwardly faceplant into the ground.

"Sorry," Yuu said with a sigh. "He's always a little opinionated."

"He's a bigger jerk than you," Tagiru grumbled, then looked at him. "So, why can' I have him?"

Yuu shrugged. "Like he said, he doesn't want you to. He's got the choice. And because Shoutmon asked him to help me."

"Shoutmon?" These monsters had some weird freaking names.

"The King of the Digital World," Gumdramon shouted from the Xros Loader. "A pain in the butt!"

"He'd be so amused to hear that," Yuu mused out loud, crossing his arms.

Tagiru racked his brain. "Was he that really big guy fighting that angel looking thing with a sword?"

"He was." Yuu smiled at the sky, which before Tagiru's eyes, began to sputter and darken. "He was also Taiki-san's partner."

Tagiru stared.  _"What."_

Then the world righted itself into a dark night sky and cool air and Tagiru realized he was now  _very, very_ late.

He cursed. Yuu laughed at him.


	3. An Abstract Concept

In retrospect, he shouldn't have been surprised by that fact.

Kudo Taiki had been involved and died. It would only fit that his partner was the most powerful figure in a world or something. Not that it mattered right now. Right now, Tagiru was trying to save his ears from the powerful scolding of his mother. He had raced here after hearing that really important info bomb had been dropped and been greeted by his mother and her trusty paring knife. Her right eye twitched with anger. Tagiru flushed with embarrassment.

But that wasn't enough for her, oh no. And dad hadn't even tried to save him either! He was too tired from work or something! Hmph! What a liar.

By the end of it, Tagiru planted into his own bed face first. "Gahhhh." He had never felt so comfortable on his old, ratty bed in his life. That DigiQuartz thing had been cool and all but… seriously everything had happened all in one day! He barely understood half of it, let alone what he'd seen.

Tagiru rolled over and looked up at his ceiling. "I'm not crazy though..." he breathed. "I'm not. I just need to get a Digimon or whatever and I can play too!"

Well, not play. That was some life-threatening danger, right? That was a lot of destroyed buildings… it sure  _looked_  real, and Gumdramon not choosing him (for no reason!) was seemingly important. So it was real on some level. He could get hurt if he was injured there.

Tagiru grinned to himself. And that was it? Neat!

Well, not neat. He still needed a Digimon… and to figure out what "Hunting" was all about.

"But Yuu didn't seem all that interested in Hunting that guy..."

There was a loud thump from his floor. "Tagiru, stop talking to yourself! Dinner's ready!"

Tagiru nearly jumped off of his bed. "Okay..." He made a face and set the Xros Loader aside from where he had been idly messing with it with his fingers. "I'll be right down!"

_Thanks for killing the mood, mom._

To be fair, he had totally been out way too late. But if he hadn't, he wouldn't have known any of this. And knowing this clearly top secret information made Tagiru's heart burn with excitement. Especially since it was true.

Tagiru practically skipped down the stairs to dinner, thoughts far away from the doldrums of homework and real life boredom. He had an all new plan in mind: getting a digimon.

He knew just who to start with too.

* * *

Yuu left his shower to find Gumdramon perched on the high balcony of his lavish apartment, staring out at the night sky. The inner balcony at that. His father was so pretentious sometimes. Still, he let him stay in this apartment without weird questions or out of order phone calls. Gumdramon liked how open and spacious it was, so he couldn't complain. Yuu whistled softly, smiling a little at the sight of one of Gumdramon's eyebrows twitching like a hummingbird's wings. Still the dragon tilted his head to look at him.

"Making food?"

"Yeah," Yuu replied, offering his arm. "Going to try some Vietnamese. Want to help?"

Gumdramon hesitated. Then he flew down to his arm. "I'm not a bird, ya know?"

"You act like one sometimes." Yuu ducked from the inevitable extending tail. "Sorry, sorry."

"You aren't sorry at all."

Yuu laughed and walked into the kitchen. Gumdramon hopped off to sit on his counter and watched, seeing knives and cutting boards and raw food placed on the counter with quick ease despite likely never doing this recipe before. As he went to wash his food, Gumdramon abruptly asked, "Why do you do that?"

"Do what?" Yuu reached for a towel, then went to the fridge once more.

"Lay all your stuff out like that."

Yuu blinked at him. "You're usually more interested in the stove..." He smiled a bit. "It's called mise en place. It's French - another language - for putting in in place. It's usually referred to doing all of your prep work before you cook. Doing all the prep work first means you can just work, you know?"

"Oh."

"My sister and I learned from my dad, when he was still at home. It was the easiest way for us all to spend together. We put things in place, he chopped them up."

Gumdramon let out a snort. "Sappy."

Yuu, a month before, would have bristled. Now he just laughed. "Our family's a little sentimental." That was what got them into the most trouble, he was starting to realize. Their family was a group of emotional, sappy people. "Has its place. You're a hot head. That has its place."

A month ago, Gumdramon would have seriously tried to hit him for that. Now he only rolled his eyes, watching Yuu turn on the stove. "Why not gas?"

"Either electric everything or dad calling once a day to check if I've burnt myself. It's a little harder when I'm using electric heating." Yuu continued to chop, even at the sound of a low buzz from the front. "Could you look at that?"

Gumdramon flew to obey and turned the video screen on with a little fiddling with his claws. Human machinery was a mess on a good day. It was worse without actual hands. He glimpsed red hair and blue hair things. "Hey, Yuu, it's that redhead you like."

"That redhead I what?" Yuu rolled his eyes. "Akari-san then. Let her up."

Gumdramon sniggered and did so. The guy was always pulling a fast one on him. He would take what he could get.

Akari knocked on the door approximately three minutes later and by way of greeting she said, "Darn, I was going to offer you dinner."

"Please don't give Gumdramon more ammo than he already has," Yuu requested from his spot in the kitchen. "But we can split it. I'm sure he'll eat a full meal on his own."

"Hey!"

Akari laughed and the smile genuinely touched her eyes as it only did when among this group, among real friends.

"You're a Digimon Gumdramon. He's right."

Gumdramon paused dramatically and then deflated. "Didn't have to say it."

"Bears mentioning to my wallet."

Yuu"s reply was careless and lazy but Akari, knowing him better after three years of experience, ruffled his hair again.

As the two of them set the table and finished cooking, they fell into quiet, easy chatter. Gumdramon, losing interest, went back to his perch. He watched them until the sound of the word Digimon made it to his ears. But he still didn't turn. It wasn't his business and the quieter he got, the more he could hear. It had taken ages for the king to drill that into his skull. Though, to be fair, that was because the King was not a quiet individual.

He could be louder than Gumdramon himself, and considering the complaints he had gotten over the years, that was pretty rough.

Gumdramon chewed on his lower lip, spitting it out in disgust.

Yuu waved him over after a short few minutes. He didn't have to: the dragon had a nose for goodness' sake. He dropped into the pro-offered chair and mumbled along. It took all of his self-control to not just dive his head into the bowl and inhale. IT did smell good, yes, but the idea after that useless fight… well, there was nothing like it.

After a few minutes, Yuu spoke up, putting down his chopsticks. "I.. recruited another Hunter."

Akari paused to swallow, eyebrow arching. "You did?"

"Well, not really," Yuu said to correct himself. "I planted the idea in his head and he got a Xros Loader from that old man."

"Mm." Akari took a sip of water. "Do you feel guilty?"

"Not really." Yuu sighed. "I probably should, huh?"

Akari smiled a little. "I'm not the person to ask. I'd fight if I could, but-"

"Don't force yourself!" Yuu said sharply, before dipping his head. "You and Zenjirou-san… you've done more than enough helping Nee-san and I. There's… there's no reason for you to risk your lives anymore."

"Taiki is more than enough of a reason to risk our lives." Akari didn't sound proud exactly. She sounded almost fond. "He would push himself to the end of the rope for anyone without asking. I think we should be able to find him… even if it's just his body."

"Mm." He admired her cautious optimism really." Yuu paused for a moment before a smirk crossed his falsely angelic features. "Gumdramon hates the guy."

"He hates almost everybody."

Gumdramon scoffed. "Damn right I do."

Akari looked at him and it was so much like Captain Dorulumon that he almost slunk back in the chair. It was even down to the way their eyes glimmered with that amused, mature  _knowing_  of things. Jerks. "Why don't you like him?"

"He's an idiot with no filter."

Akari paused, pretending to think. "So you're too similar."

Yuu dropped his chopsticks and bent to hide his face. Gumdramon hopped from the chair, only not launching himself at her by sheer force of will and the Xros Loader freely resting in Yuu's lap. The dragon tipped back onto the back of the chair.

"No," he finally grunted. "Not like me. He's… I want to get stronger. I will get stronger and that means doing thins that are gonna help me. But he's not doing anything like that. He's just going… because the real world sucks."

"He's thirteen," Yuu replied.

"The heck does a number have to do with anything?"

Thus Akari set out to explain why ages and numbers meant anything, which Gumdramon eventually countered with,

"Shoutmon is a kid in my world and he runs the whole place!"

And that, Yuu had to justify himself. Circumstances had been rather dire, and he had witnessed them.

* * *

Despite all of this peace and quiet in these homes, for one insect, it was anything but. He was again, running for his life. The Blossommon was chasing him once again, but this time, it was different. There was purpose behind it, care where there had only been mad flailing hours earlier. What had changed?

Kokabuterimon didn't know, but he did not want to find out that was for sure. Unless he could take care of it, permanently, or something. He didn't want to be here, he just wanted to go home. Though where was home anyway?

Ah well, he'd figure it out when he wasn't running for his life. Kokabuterimon hopped a fence with ease and then began to slow. It was… it was almost quiet. Had the creature given up?

Kokabuterimon listened to the beating of its core, willing it to go down in case the monster could find him through the sounds of his Core. Strikedramon and Sealsdramon were notorious for that, and it was what made the dead zones so uninhabitable. Even the king was working on fixing that. He wasn't a perfect man yet.

 _And he never will be,_ murmured a voice right above his ears. Kokabuterimon jumped and looked up and around. He has huddled inside a small construct surrounded by chips of wood and metal contraptions. The only things that he should have heard to make that voice should be right next to him or booming overhead. There was nothing.

 _I'm losing it,_ Kokabuterimon thinks with a dismal sort of relief. That too, was something understandable. He had just been fleeing for his life.

He shut his kaleidoscope eyes and tried to sleep. Tomorrow he would look for a new place, somewhere safe, somewhere he could rest. It was that or find a human willing to work with him. If he could find out why he was here then…

Then he could go home.

Something in him warmed at the thought of home. The rest of him curdled.

* * *

Tagiru jumped the train tracks, running full force forward like always. It usually wasn't this bad but today was… today was his day on classroom duty! He was with… what was her name, Kumi? Gah, he didn't remember. He'd been busy drawing out his path to super star fame in the hunt and only fallen asleep after doing his math homework.

Therefore, now he was bolting for his life, jogging irritably in place while waiting for the light. Someone's footsteps went rushing up next to him and he looked reflexively to his left.

"You have duty too, Miho-cap?" He had to call her that, especially when it gave her that irritable mouth twist. However, today it was nowhere to be found and that… that just wasn't right somehow. Instead she only smiled and scratched her head sheepishly.

"Unfortunately, yeah. It was a last minute switch. I figured I would use the time to study."

Tagiru made a face. "Your grades are better than mine by a mile though. What do you have to worry about?"

For a moment, Tagiru swore he saw her face  _twist._  Then it relaxed into its usual casual, playful self and she laughed. "No offense, Tagiru, but that's not saying much. Your friend Yuu-kun there beats me by a mile and he's at five. The rest of them are even worse. I've seen the top three in study group. It's almost as bad as cram school."

"Don't talk to me about cram school," Tagiru grumbled. "Mom thinks I should go into business, like my dad." At Miho's curious scowl, something deep in his gut began to ease. "And I suck at math. I suck at stats and people and everything. Honestly, it's just not for me."

"Can't hurt to try though, can it?" she asked with a strangely lofty smile. "I thought the same thing about painting."

"I can't get a degree in painting," he said with a smile. "I'd like to though, that would make her less..."

"Restrictive?" Miho suggested.

"Annoying!" Tagiru finished with triumph. Miho rolled her eyes and jogged after him. "He's not my friend by the way. Yuu, I mean."

Miho blinked. "I saw you talking to him when I went to get some water. You're not friends?"

"Yuu is weird, Miho," Tagiru declared. "And not just 'cause he reads more than my dad."

For a moment, Tagiru thought he saw his fellow student's eyes sparkle. That twisting feeling curled in his gut again. "Really?"

Tagiru hesitated. Yuu hadn't said he couldn't tell people about Digimon Hunting and all of that, but then, he hadn't seen many people on his way home from that place, so it couldn't be that common. Then he shrugged. "He acts like a mind reader sometimes. And he believes me."

"Does he believe you saw monsters fighting by the bridge?"

Tagiru huffed. "Yeah! That's what I said."

Miho winked at him. "Hey I believe you too, you know. Anyone who draws that well can't just be making it up."

For the first time in his life, Tagiru found himself embarrassed. It was different than the relief that he had seen something real.

"Thanks," he muttered, at a loss for words. Then, to cover himself and his own embarrassment, Tagiru added. "I only made that because of you. Thanks for that too!"

Miho stared at him, a flush going over her face that took the strange, deep sparkle from her eyes. Then she smiled, at ease once more. "God, we almost sound like friends, huh?"

Tagiru snorted and laughed at the same time.

He was almost tempted again to tell her about the Hunt. Almost. But then he remembered the utter wreck that plant monster had made. So he didn't.

It was enough that people believed in him.

Something in him curled up unhappily at that word. At enough.

* * *

For someone like him who hated looking at his respective workbooks, Tagiru hated falling asleep in class. It implied a terrible work ethic and that he wasn't taking care of himself. And his parents had taught him those two things. It was just… hard to keep up with them.

Still, he hadn't meant to fall asleep in class. He must have been tired. Because he dreamed of someone singing in the deepest darkness.

It sounded like a cry for help. It also sounded like a lullaby. If only he could see who it was, then he could find some answers. Tagiru didn't know why he wanted to know.

Drip.

He didn't know why his eyes weren't adjusting to the darkness.

Drip.

He didn't know what that sound was.

Tagiru wanted to know. It was like having a parched throat. He wanted to find that person. It was like having a piece of cake on the other side of a window. Tagiru wanted to grab that person and-

Red light seared into his eyes, his skin, his blood. Red light and sweet lullaby flooded his being.

And for the first time in almost two years, Tagiru felt right. He settled himself on a non-existent floor until he was curled up in a ball on it. He listened to it and forgot the hunt. He forgot to be a hero. He forgot… everything.

And then something soft touched his shoulder and a voice whispered into his ear.

Then, as if from far away, he heard Sudo Miho scream with triumph.

Meanwhile, in the classroom, Yuu watched Tagiru flicker away and disappear and heard a scream from the room next door. He groaned.

"Well," Gumdramon said dryly. "At least we know it's still nearby."

Yuu almost slammed his head into the desk, but called Ren instead.

"We need Ryouma," he said abruptly on the third ring. " _Now."_

Ren let out a sound like a demented, angry puppy dog, but likely hung up to call him. Yuu gave up on his education entirely and rose to his feet. No one was paying attention to him anyway. Within seconds, he was running in the hall.

"Gumdramon," he said curtly. "Be ready to cut this thing down."

"Always ready."

Yuu wasn't grateful. He was nauseous.


	4. Spiders and Parasites

For over three years now, Mogami Ryouma was an enigma to his classmates.

He'd never been popular, or even unpopular. At the time, he had just been known as that little nerdy kid who played in the back of music club on the piano long after club activities came to an end. If anything, his silver-white hair was the only exciting thing about him. Until a few years ago, he had been content with that, with floating through his life in elementary and middle school. He'd had no delusions of a high school debut, but perhaps a breakout would be fine? Maybe?

Then, like a select few, he saw the battle of good and evil take place practically on his backdoor. He had managed to escape the wave of petrifying energy through luck and a conveniently open hole and never looked back. If ordinary teenagers could save the world, so could he.

Yuu told him on a consistent basis that it wasn't as romantic as all of that, but Ryouma was inclined not to believe him. After all, on some level, kindness had won the day. It had to be at least a little romantic that way. So getting the opportunity to become a Hunter, to become strong and able to repeat acts like that, well, he had jumped into the future face first. It didn't mean he stopped caring entirely. In fact it meant just the opposite.

The crowning of the king had made Mogami Ryouma care  _more._

It was why despite it being three minutes before his lunch break, despite needing to keep his grade from slipping up in math, when Ren's name lit up his phone display, Ryouma did not hesitate to get up from his desk to use the restroom and not look back.

"What's going on?" he asked, adjusting his jacket to smooth out back over his school dress shirt. "Have we found that Blossommon?"

Ren grunted. "Yeah. I think Yuu's right on top of it."

"It's at his school." Normally, Ryouma wouldn't care. Usually they could get Digimon Hunted before they caused too much damage to a populated area. It was the beautiful – and disturbing – part about DigiQuartz: there were no humans.

Ryouma didn't even want to think about what that could imply.

"Yeah." Ren panted into the earpiece for a moment before he managed to return to the line properly. "He showed me pictures. Kids were turned into wooden statues. And one disappeared."

Ryouma shuddered. "Wonderful, absolutely perfect." He tried to keep himself from spitting. "You guys could have called me yesterday."

"Yeah and watch you limp home again," Ren replied, as though Ryouma didn't sound angry at all. "Your mother thinks I'm taking you to fight gangs or something, remember?"

Ryouma made a face that only he could see, cheeks tipping down and flushing with heat. "She worries," he defended. Then he shook his head to dismiss the problem. "We're missing the point, how long do I have to get there?"

"Judging by the fact that Yuu skipped class and Airu is actually picking up her phone, I'd say yesterday."

"Then hang up." Ryouma managed to fumble his grip on the Xros Loader. "I'll be there soon."

Ren did so and the scar on his back twinged.

He swore he felt it scuttle.

…

The peace of mind that had been enveloping Tagiru for the past few minutes ended with the sound of that voice. Tagiru felt it throb in his gut too, warm and gentle and encouraging.

"You need to wake up," they said. Soft and male, with a touch of feminine charm it felt like. "You're not supposed to be here, Akashi Tagiru. Wasn't that the point of all of this?"

The point of all of what, he wanted to ask. His jaw hurt so he didn't try to do it out loud. He didn't think the voice would answer anyway. They didn't. Their hand left his shoulder, leaving something sticky printed into his shirt.

"Open your eyes," said the voice lightly. "You'll regret it if you don't."

Tagiru, against his better judgment, opened his eyes. His jaw still hurt, but he made himself raise his head to take a look around. "Huh…?" He saw his chair, or a rotting version of it, turned on its side. The desk he sat at had a hole in it. A big hole, like a termite had suddenly found fangs and suddenly decided it liked metal too, hole. There was no termite though, just the very real colors and sounds of DigiQuartz and crumbs of ceiling plaster dropping onto his cheek. Wait… He shifted onto his knees. Plaster.

Tagiru looked up at the ceiling and saw maroon and purple petals and his gaze went slowly down the broken ceiling to see a blackboard that had been dragged in two and was only still there because the wall was hanging on by nails and framework. And there it was again, the giant screaming flower. It stabbed a vine forward and then shrieked, shrieking so loudly Tagiru had no idea how he could have remained unconscious through all of that. Math class must really have been a bore… wait.

"How did I end up here?!"

This was the second time too. The world just warped around him and he ended up in this DigiQuartz place and then just got back. There had to be a way to control that. Otherwise what if he disappeared in front of his parents? They would kill him! He flung into his pockets for the Xros Loader thingie and it thrummed pleasantly under his hand. "Okay, good, got that." He pushed himself up gingerly, wincing in pain. "Geez, did I fall or something?"

"You did fall out of your chair." A dry voice supplied. Tagiru looked over to see a shorter boy, blue hair cropped short under his beanie and red eyes looking at him, him of all people, with irritation. "Come on, fireball," he said sharply. "We've gotta keep moving. Yuu's doing what he can, doesn't need the life sucked out of you in the process."

"My life? Yuu?" Tagiru hoisted himself to his feet. "I don't even know who you are. I'm not going with you." He paused. "And, my name's not fireball," he added hotly.

The boy laughed. "Think that's the smartest thing you've said in the ten minutes we've met. Name's Tobari Ren. My job is to tease out the prey and lead them into a corner for Yuu to get and send to whoever needs the help. And you're Akashi Tagiru, some other fool who could use a Digimon." Ren raised an eyebrow. "But you don't have one yet."

"Gumdramon said no," Tagiru grumbled, giving up on this jerkbag for the moment. "What's going on?"

"That blossommon from yesterday found a host." Ren shot out the door without a pause, leaving Tagiru to chase him down for answers. "Now, he's gotten real powerful, so Yuu's decided to kill him, rather than Hunt him."

"What? Kill him? Host?" Tagiru squinted. "Killing's something shitty people do."

"Yuu's a terrible person," Ren offered without looking up, pulling out a slate-gray Xros Loader. "He's killed before. He'll do it again. But yeah, just like you can have Digimon partners, you can have Digimon parasites. It's one thing to work with someone in a right mind, but one-sided deals don't exist right? Everyone gets something out of something if they've got sense. And when they don't, that's a parasite. That's what the Blossommon did. It made a promise, it kept is, but never specified the conditions of the promise. So. Well, their host is being drained dry of energy. We don't kill it soon, it'll be blood, fat, skin, till she's nothing but bones." Ren stopped and held out the Xros Loader, facing outward. "Dracmon, hunt."

There was a flash of green light and something small and dark scampered away as Tagiru clutched to the side of a doorway with ease. Ren looked around. "The school's grown," he mused out loud. "The host is causing it probably. Trying to keep Yuu the only one there."

Tagiru, having caught his breath, found some strength in his legs. "Someone is going to  _die_  if this keeps up?!"

Ren only blinked at him. Then a smirk curved his lips. "People already have," he said with that same smile. "You didn't think this was a game, did you?"

Tagiru scowled and didn't answer. Because all it had been was a dangerous game, something you only did if you were the best, the elite. "That doesn't matter! That old man didn't tell me that!"

"He tends not to," Ren replied, no longer interested in him. "How else will you convince people to play along? Even if they don't fight, for some reason, he needs as many people as possible to reach the game clear point, or whatever he calls it?"

Tagiru crossed his arms. "Yeah?" Because even knowing people could die, even knowing that someone in here was being sucked dry, his heart soared with this. Because he could do something about it, he could save them and stop them. And if he was fast enough, he could prevent them from getting that way at all somehow. He'd figure it out.

Ren snickered. "What, you think I'd know why? I know nada bucko, 'cept what Yuu says. And he says it's to get to Paradise." He knelt down as 'Dracmon' scampered back. "Whatever that means anyway." He stopped and tilted his head. "Well, it looks like your lucky day, newbie. We're gonna get you a Digimon and then we're gonna get to Yuu. By then, Ryouma should be here and Airu will be done with whatever she's doing now."

"Who?"

"Exactly." Ren moved cautiously towards another door. "We've got my best friend coming, and our resident trap expert. This place is a living hell for someone in college mathematics and engineering. She loves it."

His teeth were bared in a delighted smile.

…

In one dark classroom crouched the Digimon Tagiru had met before. The over-sized multicolored beetle sat under a fort made of barely held together desks and chairs. His blue horn stuck out of it, garish in a sea of grey and sepia brown. Tagiru frowned, looking at the piecemeal windows, the way the pile fort shuddered and trembled with the force of the Digimon's utter terror.

"That guy?" He shook his head. "Leave him alone. He doesn't want to fight. I can find someone better." He didn't want a coward for a partner anyway. No offense to the guy, but if he didn't want to fight, he'd just get them all hurt. Or worse, apparently.

"No one around now," Ren said in what he probably thought was a perfectly reasonable tone. Tagiru thought it sounded haughty. "I'm not letting you follow me unguarded. How would we explain your body strewn across the school?"

Tagiru shuddered at the grisly image his brain conjured up, blood, guts and all. "Thanks."

"Get in there." He lifted his hand. "We don't got lo-" The very school shuddered and almost tilted as something slammed into the right wing. "Oh shit." He ran to one of the open windows, ignoring the way the digimon trying to hide had squealed like a dog whose tail had been stepped on. "I guess Ryouma's there," he muttered, taking care around the shard of glass and hefting himself up. "Hurry, newbie." And with a few flashes of dark green light, he was gone.

And Tagiru was left alone with the trembling robot beetle. Great.

Tagiru cleared his throat. "What are you doing here?"

There was a pause. Then, the bug replied in a breathless voice. "I'm-I'm not going with you! I won't help you!"

Tagiru sweatdropped. "Wasn't asking that you big hunk of legos." Tagiru sat on one of the few upturned chairs. "Was asking why you're here."

"Because I want to go home, obviously!" The digimon's tone sounded petulant now. Tagiru thought it was him at thirteen, barreling towards his dreams and ever defensive about it. It was him without three years of stubbornly hitting that brick wall and not noticing the blood dripping down his face. "Who would want to be here, used by humans?"

"Is it really using you when you guys use us like batteries?"

Tagiru thought that was a perfectly logical question, but he only earned a soft scoffing noise.

"Wouldn't have to if we didn't have to fight for you!"

Tagiru felt his temper rise. "Then why are you here?!"

"I told you-" The beetle had stopped trembling at this point, and was crawling from his fortress to look at Tagiru and poke him with his finger appendages.

Tagiru, however, was having none of it. He squared up with one sneakered foot and drove it into the Digimon's soft neck, managing to make it topple over onto its fortress and squeal. The resulting loud crash rang in Tagiru's ears and his toes smarted with the force of the blow. Still, Tagiru raised his foot and kicked again. Because he felt anger make his gut bubble at the sight of this thing with sharp edges and strong, thick limbs  _cowering_  from what he could do and complaining.

"Why are you here at all? You could have escaped by now!"

What happened to Digimon who lost in here, he had wondered but not asked. Did they die too? Did they turn into weird withered corpses or something? Did they leave bodies?

"Why are you here?" Tagiru demanded again. The frustration o the past couple of days boiled over. He knew this place was dangerous, knew now how bad it could be. He needed someone to protect him, help him fight because he still wanted to, but all that was showing up was this giant, terrified  _beetle._ "Stop hanging around here and go somewhere safe and quit-"

" _Quit sticking your nose in, you little brat."_

Tagiru stopped, someone's indistinct face forming in his head, a thin, tall face covered in a medical mask. He didn't know them, but just imagining them in his head made him sick and strangely unhappy.

He turned away from the beetle. "Seriously! Go find somewhere else to hide."

The Digimon was silent for a moment. Tagiru didn't wait for another one. He just left. Ren was nowhere to be found, so clearly it wasn't done yet.

There was another tremor and the heavy weight of the Blossommon crashed right in front of him. The pressure of the blow made Tagiru flop over like a fish. It screeched and writhed on the ground. Tagiru groaned and stumbled to his feet as the tentacle vines flopped over and about, smacking the remaining floor with quick, light hits. Then they stilled as smaller vines boosted something up. Their brown hair was streaked in gray, but they were too small to be an elder. Their limbs hung limply in the air as the vines gently deposited them on the safest plot of floor they could find: right in front of Tagiru himself.

Tagiru stumbled over to get a good look at them and stared. "Sudo?"

Her eyes, sunken in, hollow black, opened at the sound of her name. "Tagiru..." Her body spasmed and he made to grab her arms. "I did it… I stopped them. I'll be able to catch up… I'll be at the top..."

 _She was the host._  His captain, the first one to really believe him when he said the outlandish stuff, the person who gave him an outlet, who let him be in the club and do whatever art he wanted and said he was  _good._  Sure, she also beat herself up too hard and really wanted that high enough grade, that good school, that good life, but…

"Cap?" he said incredulously. "Miho? Why you? Why this?"

She smiled, an incisors proud smile that made him sick to his stomach. "Three years, Tagiru… they've been beating me in class for  _three years._  They could have gone anywhere else, but those two stuck around this one. They did it on purpose, they had to have done it just ot get to me. But  _not anymore._ " She laughed. "They'll never do this to people again."

"That's  _murder,_  Cap!" He was trying to be angry but all of him just felt drenched in sweat, drenched and worn out. "That flower thing is using you to commit murder!"

"No one will know!" She said brightly, dazedly, her hollow eyes slowly turning a brilliant amber color. "No one who can tell. No one will believe you Tagiru. They certainly didn't believe me." She reached out and grasped his wrist. "Come on, you understand. The people here are  _snobs._  They're elitists in a middle-class high school. Their parents beefed them up on a false ideal. You know better! This is for the normal kids. I'm  _tired_  of being normal! Aren't you? Isn't that why you're here?!"

Tagiru swallowed. She, she wasn't wrong. That was exactly why he was here. But… somehow, that didn't mean she should be.

Small claws sank into his shoulders and the next thing Tagiru knew he was staring dizzily up at the ceiling. He raised his head to find a gun pointed at Miho's head and the cowardly beetle standing in front of him with his horn lowered to charge.

A young man sat on the shoulder of the man holding his gun. "All right, Astamon, we need to keep her there."

The man grunted in acknowledgment, eyes narrowed in his bestial mask of a head. The other jumped down and went to Tagiru, prepared to help him up.

"Your Digimon there's got good instincts," he congratulated.

Tagiru scowled. "Who're you?"

The other laughed, dancing his silver hair out of his head. "Nice to meet you too- What?"

Miho screamed bloody murder and Blossommon started to glow a hot white.

The newcomer scowled, his Astamon running to scoop up the three of them. "Oh now, that's just cheating."


	5. From Blade to Tail

Yuu had never considered calling his fellow former generals so badly as right now.

Arresterdramon didn't stop booking it until all they could see was the smoke of the impact.

"This is bad," Yuu muttered.

One of the hard and fast rules of fighting with Digimon had always been: Digimon were not able to evolve at will anymore. Shoutmon himself had confirmed that even to this day that that was a serious issue. It took partnership with a human, real partnership, or some weird mechanic called Jogress, or worst of all, cannibalizing their fellow digimon. At least, unlike with the Darkness Loader, they were dead when that happened.

So that Blossommon was evolving and fast, no less… He didn't like the sound of that. According to Shoutmon, Blossommon was more along the lines of MetalGreymon. Anything higher than that was ZekeGreymon at best.

And Arresterdramon, without his ring removed, was just an Adult, one strength tier lower.

That meant absolutely nothing usually. Arresterdramon was uncommonly powerful. But with a human as a host… as a partner… that meant something else entirely.

"Yuu?" Arresterdramon began in a dry voice. "You're smiling."

Yuu touched his cheeks with his fingers and hurriedly schooled it. "Sorry. Can't help it. It's this or cry, I'm pretty sure. This is such a mess."

"Hm." Arresterdramon paused. "This is that bad, huh?"

"This is the second time this has happened here," Yuu reminded him. "Last time was..." He shook his head. Ryouma may have let it go, but Yuu was relatively sure Ren never would. "Anyway, we need to start observing. Then, we'll get to Ryouma and ask to borrow a Xros."

"Right!"

The agreeable response made Yuu's heart  _hurt_  in homesickness, but he smiled it away. "All right, let's fly."

They took off, Arresterdramon circling in order to see where everyone else. Airu was nowhere to be found, but that was fine. She was better in hiding, and she didn't have enough strong digimon to carry her around the area and keep her alive at the same time. They would have to work on that once the fight was over.

Ren waved from another part of the rooftop before dialing his phone. Yuu sincerely wished for Ballistamon and his convenient Wrister making right about now. At least they didn't rely on phone batteries to work.

"I think Ryouma's in the midst of that," Ren reported. "I'm going to get Airu while the smoke clears. Keep us posted on what we need."

"We need a miracle is what we need," Yuu said under his breath. Then he cleared his throat. "Keep me posted. I'll find Ryouma and- didn't you say you found Tagiru in there?"

"Yeah I left him with a Digimon."

 _Well, that's comforting._  "Right, and him. Nice job."

"Hey, he's your problem, not mine."

Yuu shot him a dirty look, even as Arresterdramon puffed up a little in triumph.

"Good, someone agrees with me- whoa crap!" Arresterdramon rolled in front of them all as a gust o wind nearly took out them and the roof. The thing that had once been been Blossommon rose up on wings made of earth and forest, a tree growing and spreading over its back.

It threw its head back and shrieked.

"Man," Arresterdramon grunted. "This guy doesn't want to know when to shut up, does he?"

"Sounds familiar," Yuu managed to wheeze. "Come on, before it figures out it has attacks."

No one argued with that.

…

Tagiru was glad he hadn't ended up unconscious this time. He was also glad this wasn't his school on Earth because there was no way there would be anything left.

Still, when he opened his eyes, he saw that the flower monster was gone. A great bird made of what at first glance looked like dirt carried Miho in one too big talon. The thing was still growing as it flapped its huge wings. It shrieked, blind head swerving left and right. All the green on it fizzed and sparkled for a moment, like the moss on the floor, like the moss everywhere, until the wings were tipped with pink and flapping fast and hard.

"Cap!" he shouted to Miho, who he could tell right now was too far away to hear. He cursed and looked for the nearest flight of stairs. "Thanks for helping me you weirdos, gotta go save my friend, bye!"

Because they were friends. She lived a few doors down and their parents shared recipes and they even complained together about stupid school things. She was not going to just disappear on him after pretending to be happy for years. He knew he wasn't that observant but he couldn't be that bad, right?

Tagiru made it down the stairs just to see Arresterdramon's fist hit the bird right in the beak. It roared and knocked him backwords

"God you're fast," said the kid on the so-called Astamon, dropping down beside them as a shockwave hit. "You're not going to be able to catch up on foot, you know. Not if you can't hit her free. And then you'll have to catch her." The kid laughed. "I don't think you can do that, can you?"

"I'd figure something out!" Tagiru snapped, turning on him. "I don't see you doing anything!"

The other gave him the most amused look like he was the idiot. Tagiru was really starting to think a team up with anyone here was a terrible idea. Everyone here was a  _jerk._  "Why don't you have that guy behind you lend a hand?"

Tagiru reluctantly turned behind him and saw the beetle. He was shaking, sure, but his hands were raised up as he prepared to crouch down, fully prepared to attack.

"He did save your life," the boy offered, turning his eyes back to where Yuu was holding onto Arresterdramon for dear life. That was dumb, why didn't he just let go- oh wait that was way too high, even for this place to break his fall. "No idea why, but he might do it again."

Tagiru turned away just as quickly. "I don't need his help. He's just here because he's an idiot."

The other frowned but the beetle spoke up. "I don't wanna hear that from you!" He glared at Tagiru and Tagiru had to take a step back at the utter fury there temporarily distracted. "You're the one who ran in here like some kinda big shot! That girl's your friend and you're surrounded by people who can actually do something and you say no! What kind of jerk are you anyway, huh? Maybe I am a coward, but at least I'm not  _you._ "

"Then why are you protecting me, huh?" Tagiru spat.

"Uh, not to kill the mood, the silver-haired Hunter began.

"I felt sorry for you!" Kokabuterimon replied and if the thing had a mouth, Tagiru would have sworn it was smirking. "No one should die because their friend's a-"

He was cut off by the heavy weight of Arresterdramon making a crater in the school's track field. The other Hunter turned and left them entirely, diving to help Yuu.

"Oh crap!" Tagiru ran to join him, leaving Kokabuterimon behind. Leaving the sound of another pitying jerkwad behind with the rest of them. What, did the beetle think that he liked pity? Who liked pity? Who tolerated that? Not him, that was for damn sure.

Still, he couldn't help the ache in his chest. The painful hope for someone else like Miho, someone who would actually let him do what he wanted.

Maybe he could just take Miho's Digimon and tame them, teach them not to use humans like this for their own gain. The two groups could just use each other and make a happy healthy relationship.

By the time he got there, Yuu was already sitting up. There was a thin stream of blood trickling down his head and he looked a little dizzy as he struggled to stand.

"They bonded," Tagiru heard Yuu say as he arrived. "They bonded like us. All she needs is a Xros Loader and she's an honest Hunter, Ryouma."

"But she's still rampaging," 'Ryouma' pointed out as Astamon aimed his gun in case the monster tried to go back around for round two. "If they're bonded, wouldn't it have stopped by now?"

"I don't think so..." Yuu glanced vaguely in Tagiru's direction. "Do you know anything?"

Tagiru hesitated. Somehow, Miho's words didn't eel like something he could repeat to anyone. But what else could he do? "She's feeling really humiliated by some kids in our class. She works really hard, you know? But they keep beating her and it feels like she can't catch up. She..." Tagiru looked at the pieces of the empty school building. "She hates this place, hates it and everything it stands for, and is real jealous of them."

Were those top kids still alive? Were they still people anymore or were they frozen here so they couldn't react outside the game?

Tagiru watched Yuu's expression shutter despite the pain that he had to be in. "That… that sounds familiar enough," Yuu admitted. Then he looked back up to the monster and raised his Xros Loader. Its screen flickered and up popped another picture, a smaller version of the bird.

"Ceresmon," Yuu read quietly. "A member of the Olympus Twelve, protector of forests and trees. If you are supportive of nature, they will be kind to you. If you bring it to harm, they will destroy you. The Medium is only visible to those who are supportive of nature." He made a face. "Great. And there she has the exact thing she needs to get a Medium form and she's still growing." He shook his head. "We're not going to be able to stop her right now. We need to set her signature up and spread it around the network."

Tagiru stared at him. "You're just going to let that ugly bird take Miho?"

"What choice do we have?" Yuu replied, swaying where he stood. "I got hit in the head, we're down two people while we do a setup in the air. We have no idea if a trap could even reach. You're not exactly anywhere within reach of the usefulness department. All we can do is retreat and hope she doesn't get too overpowered while we get some power in the meantime."

"But what'll happen to Cap?" She was still with that stupid thing.

Tagiru was going to blame the concussion for why he swore Yuu looked like was going to respond to him with, what about her? He had to, otherwise he would kill the guy and that would be hypocritical. "Is… is cap gonna die?"

Yuu opened his mouth as if to ask who had told him she would at all before wincing. "It's less likely now," he admitted. "Now that they are partners, there's less of a chance Blossommon -Ceresmon- will get too deep into her life force and everything."

"But there's not no chance." Tagiru clenched his fists. "I need to go after her. She'd go after me! And I need a partner." He looked up at Arresterdramon, who was glowering up at the growling bird. "Hey big guy, give me a boost."

"No," Arresterdramon said bluntly. "Yuu's barely keeping me going as is. I'm not risking him dying for your hero complex. Did that once in my life already."

Tagiru wanted to scowl and just start running but at this point they were so high up it hurt to look at them. "Damn it!" he looked around to 'Ryouma'. "Can your Digimon get high enough?"

"Nope," Ryouma said wearily. "Not for lack of trying."

"We would need the King or Sparrowmon to get to them that fast," Yuu added. "If we had a fast flier, we could at least track where she's going. In our state now, with the guy still going, we can't risk it.

Arresterdramon would only be able to get a few hits in with me like this."

Tagiru shuddered with anger. Why did this bother him? She had wanted to do this, wanted people to die because she wasn't special. That wasn't like her. It wasn't her fault. But these guys seemed willing to let her go because of a couple of injuries.

"Uhm…"

Kokabuterimon interrupted his budding mental tirade. "If you throw me, I can do it."

Tagiru squinted at him. "You?"

The beetle scowled. "Looking a gift horse in the mouth?"

This cowardly brat had a mouth on him, seriously. "You're not much of a gift."

"Are you willing to be thrown that high?" Yuu asked seriously.

Kokabuterimon made a face. "No, but that guy's gonna come back. If I have to play keep away from them even more, I'd like to know where they are."

It was the soundest logic they had.

"Okay," Yuu said din the most decisive voice he could muster with his head covering the trickling blood from his head. "Arresterdramon, get ready. You, Tagiru, take point. If we can't beat him, we've got to watch it. Got it?"

A dull heat washed over Tagiru's cheeks but he nodded anyway. "Crystal."

"Good." Yuu swallowed. "Ryouma, keep me awake. You guys have one shot."

As Tagiru turned unhappily to work with Kokabuterimon, who did not look much happier, Ryouma leaned over against Yuu's arm. "Have I met him before?"

Yuu frowned, eyes squeezed shut. "You don't visit my school much, so I doubt it. Why?"

Ryouma chewed on his lip. "Well… I don't know why, but I think he was there when we met, you know, with Astamon."

"You think it's not a coincidence?" Yuu mumbled, too bleary to tell if Ryouma was actually pulling his leg or not. He wouldn't blame him. That the idea even sounded remotely plausible was likely a sign of his head being in bad shape at the moment. His head lulled and eyes fell shut. Oh, he really, really wanted to sleep.

Ryouma squeezed his arm much harder than normal, causing him to grumble and open his eyes. "I don't know," he admitted, once Yuu was looking at him. He looked away to watch Tagiru climb to Arresterdramon's shoulder, slipping more than once. "If it happens a third time it's definitely not a coincidence. But I don't like how familiar he is. He should be way more disoriented in here than he is."

"Mm." Yuu couldn't argue with that, couldn't argue with much of any of it to be honest. "We'll keep an eye on him. He's a lot like you."

"That's exactly what I'm worried about."

…

Riding on Arresterdramon made Tagiru jealous of Yuu all over again. The dragon was so  _fast._ It was so unfair. How come the only digimon who even gave him a second look was this beetle? Well… the beetle wasn't all bad. He was offering to help his friend even after Tagiru himself had been a right jerk to him.

"Hey," he began warily. Kokabuterimon cocked his head and then looked away. "Sorry I snapped at you. Just… you were getting in danger for no reason."

"So were you," replied the beetle without delay. "I'm not the squishy one around here."

"Yeah but you just wanna go home," Tagiru objected. "Why would you go near these nutjobs?"

"Who the heck else will I ask?"

Tagiru had to take pause at that. "You know… that's a good point." He laughed. Kokabuterimon seemed to do the equivalent of squinting before shrugging his metallic shoulders. After a few seconds of thought, Tagiru nodded decisively. 'All right, beetle, let's make a deal: You help me in this place, and I'll help you find a way home! Sound like a plan?"

Kokabuterimon stared at him for a few moments. Then he let out a sigh. "I guess."

"You guess? Now who's looking a gift horse in the mouth?"

Arresterdramon groaned. "Look you married couple, not to kill the love fest but I'm gonna get ready to throw, aight?"

"We're ready dude!" Tagiru replied. His Xros Loader was warm in his hand. For some reason, he felt happy. He almost felt like  _he could fly like a shooting star._  Was it cheesy? Sure. Did he care? Heck no.

"Your name's Kokabuterimon right?" The beetle nodded. "All right, let's do it." He held out the tracker to the beetle. The Digimon stared at his hand for a moment. Then he shook it, and the two of them started to shine. It almost made Arresterdramon drop from the sky as the Digimon grew, flying like a jet towards Ceresmon. Tagiru almost fell off his perch, staring in open mouthed awe as he flew.

"Whoa..." he whispered.

Arresterdramon squinted, watching the Digimon move faster and faster forward. "Congrats, dude," he said, voice indicating a complete lack of interest. "You just evolved your Digimon."

Tagiru was at a loss for words for a grand total of ten seconds. Then, he screamed right in Arresterdramon's ear. "Awesome!"

Arresterdramon was very glad that this guy wasn't his to look after. Yuu was enough of a handful.

…

Kokabuterimon continued to shift inside the light, body lengthening, power thrumming. This wasn't home, but the stirring in his heart that refused to fade was starting to ease, relaxing and dying down little by little. He was nowhere close to his goal but for some reason, he felt so happy, almost ready to burst. How weird.

But how exciting too.

When MetallifeKuwagamon struck home, he was smiling. He had nothing to be afraid of in this moment.


	6. There's No Band-Aid

When the dust had cleared and the mission had failed, Tagiru was left with a spinning headache and the sound of the ambulance.

Sudo Miho was missing. (Technically, they had to wait before declaring that, but he knew but there was no point in saying so.) The top two students of his year were nothing but wooden figurines rooted to their chairs. The roots were spreading. And Amano Yuu was taken away in an ambulance.

Honestly, despite evolving that KoKabuterimon guy, today sucked.

The school didn't even tell his family afternoon classes were canceled! So he got home and got yelled at by his mother who was coming back from the daily shopping trip.  _And made to help carry the bags._

(He was studiously ignoring the way she had dropped the bags first and held him tight after he said anything about it at all because that was just her being sentimental. That wasn't to do with the fact that she had probably seen police running past the market or seen the plumes of smoke and the like even from so far away. She was just hugging him out of bribery, really.)

"If that's the welcome I get, why'd I bother coming home," he grumbled, making it to his bed enough to flop on it. There as a low buzz of annoyance from his belt. Tagiru tossed the Xros Loader on to the pillow with a grunt.

"I'm in here, you know," the beetle said.

"Yeah, sadly I know," Tagiru replied without missing a beat. He didn't apologize, He was still actually, uncomfortably irritated with the beetle. He was still irritated about Miho being gone, and the other Hunters not being good enough.  _I could have saved her myself._

_Could you?_

Tagiru opened his eyes and looked around. There was no one there. He sagged into the bed. "Great," he muttered. "I'm hearing things. I'm tired."

"You're tired?!" Kokabuterimon sounded like he was ready to get up and throw him. "You didn't have to fly to catch a bird made of dirt."

"No," Tagiru agreed. "I just had to give you the power to catch the bird made of dirt."

"… Touche."

Tagiru made a noise that he filled with how much his limbs hurt, burying his face in his pillow. "Hey… what do you eat?"

Kokabuterimon grumbled and the Digivice's screen flickered uncontrollably. "Why?"

"I need to know so I can sneak you food," Tagiru replied. "Do you go to the bathroom?"

Kokabuterimon made a sound that Tagiru could only identify as similar to the sound of a computer's sound going out mid-song. "Well… that's extremely private information!"

"Whether or not you go to the bathroom?!" Tagiru repeated, voice rising in a sharp, slight creak that was probably puberty. "How is that private? You're going to live here!"

"I'm not exactly planning on leaving this Xros Loader any time soon."

Tagiru opened his mouth to reply but a voice spoke from his window balcony. "Talking to yourself is a sign of insanity, you know."

Tagiru, to his credit, rolled out of bed and into a crouch with one leg ready to spring. His Xros Loader was even in his hand. Then he relaxed a hair, flopping backwards on his bed. "Oh, you're that guy with the wolf head dude."

"Ryouma," the other corrected, smiling in a way that looked and felt to Tagiru like a smirk. He brushed his hands neatly over a neat, pressed suit. It was so ponce, now that he had a chance to look at him without the fear of oncoming death approaching. "Nice to really meet you, Akashi Tagiru- _kun._ " The honorific dripped with honey, too cloying. Tagiru had always hated the stuff on anything, even a sweet.

Tagiru's eyes narrowed as he looked up at Ryouma once again. "No need to call me that," he said slowly, fingers curling tighter around his red device as if to throw it. His hair seemed to even stiffen and spike further.

The other boy beamed, chuckling softly. "I do believe it is, my dear reckless new comrade." His smile was off somewhere, like he'd been the one to take the blow to the head instead of Yuu. "You'll be likely pleased to know that Yuu-kun is going to be just fine. They got him to the hospital and there's no swelling in the brain. Gumdramon is exhausted of course, but we did fight an Olympus Twelve member, so~" He sat back on the balcony rail and hummed a bit.

"… Did you come all the way here to tell me that?" Tagiru said before he could stop himself. "I mean, thanks. I'm really glad he's okay, considering he sent you guys to look out for me and took a lot of nasty falls." Amano Yuu had saved his butt multiple times at this point. He'd be a bit of a jerk if he didn't worry about him. "But… I don't remember seeing you or wolf-boy the last time that flower showed up. I don't think you would just know where I live out of nowhere, right?"

Ryouma looked at him, still all smiles the longer Tagiru went on. Tagiru grumbled with discomfort. He smiled a lot, especially at school because smiling was good for you and it got people bored eventually. But this was weird. Even he reacted to being insulted. This guy was on a whole other level of weird.

"You," Ryouma began in that soft voice, still sitting on his balcony rail, head resting on one hand. His smile sharpened at the corners, like his dimples could kill a small child. "You're got issues, huh? People like you are supposed to be naive, full of happy dreams and wonder. High school is their debut."

Tagiru felt a sudden urge to back away. He did not, of course, but he thought about it for an instant. (Where would he go?) But it was a battle now, one of pride and gumption and proving he wasn't going to back down just because this guy was a creeper or something. "Yeah? So what?"

Ryouma only tilted his head. "What happened to you, Akashi Tagiru- _kun_?"

For a moment, Tagiru thought of sneering faces and quiet whispers, small voices and a wall of silence. Then he grinned at him in return, the expression all teeth.

"Stuff doesn't have to happen to make someone weary of a guy who came in through his window."

Ryouma stared at him and like a defiant terrier, Tagiru stared back, his amber eyes trying to drill through the green.

For a few minutes, they held this pose. Then Ryouma laughed and Tagiru had to look away. "Okay, okay, you're right." His face eased up. "Still, Yuu-kun said I should check on you. The first evolution is always a toll."

Tagiru twitched. That was very true. His arms felt like steel bars and he was pretty sure he could find a bed of steel bars and still be out like a light. "Okay," he said slowly, lowering his shoulders from their tense place behind his ears. "Tell him thanks for worrying, I guess."

"Of course I will." Ryouma chuckled a little. "And lastly..." He paused and his smiled changed into a sober little frown. It was almost more uncomfortable than the smiling. Weirdo. "The host… she was a friend of yours, yes?"

Tagiru tried not to bristle, tried not to wonder about her, tried not to feel guilt that all he had managed to do was track the digimon and prevent her from dying. No! He mentally kicked himself. She was still alive. She had to be. "Yeah," he acknowledged, sitting up on the bed. He tapped his Xros Loader. Kokabuterimon didn't respond to it. Why was he such a jerk? Seriously. They had decided to work together, be pals! Or something. He wasn't that naive. "What about it?"

Ryouma's sober expression continued. He moved inside and shut the glass door behind him, as if people hearing what he had to say was suddenly important now ,despite the fact that Tagiru was sure any kid passing by on their way home would have heard everything else by now. Then Tagiru thought about it. Everything else sounded like it could be some kid's imaginings, a couple of teenagers fighting for some reason that the adults couldn't get. So long as they didn't recognize Yuu's name, nothing could come of it. But this brought up someone the neighborhood knew.

Like Tagiru, they cared about Sudo Miho.

"Yeah?" he repeated, an itching sensation under his arms and legs.

Ryouma looked down at her. "We may not be able to save her," he admitted.

"I'll do it, so why worry?" Tagiru shot back automatically. He was definitely gonna do it. He had everything he needed to Hunt, so starting when he felt willing

Ryouma laughed and this one was a lot worse somehow. It wasn't amused. It was just sad. "Because we've got to. Because she's not the only one, at least that's the assumption anyway." He shook his head. "Even if you manage to get her back, that's her Digimon now. The relationship… they likely made a deal. And there's no Xros Loader to control the power flow, well… we don't know how long we have before she runs out of energy."

"Why are you so sure that's what happens?" Tagiru snapped. Because he spoke of death just so well. The only person that he had seem die was his grandma, and she was just old. Miho was his age, a kid with a dream and jealousy and regrets. She didn't deserve this.

Ryouma looked at his nails, which Tagiru suddenly saw were neatly filed and shiny in the light in the bedroom. "Because I got lucky."

He seemed about to say more but then there was a knock at his door downstairs. Tagiru was fully prepared to ignore it. Then his mother shouted up the stairs.

"Tagiru! You have a classmate up here to see you!"

Tagiru groaned. Who in their right mind wanted to talk to him? "I'm coming!" He looked back at Ryouma, who was making his way out from the balcony. "Can't you just use the door like a normal person?"

Ryouma paused, looking thoughtful for just a second too long. "You want to explain me to your mother?"

In the minute and a half it took Tagiru to really puzzle out what that meant, Ryouma walked out of his bedroom and disappeared. No one reacted at all.

Once he understood, Tagiru flushed hard. "That's dirty," he muttered to himself. Then he headed to the door.

…

Downstairs was none other than Mami. Her brown hair was messily undone, and she clutched her steaming mug of green tea. At the sight of him, Mami leaped from the chair and, of all things, hugged him. He could feel her eyes were wet and the tears were all over his shirt.

"Mami, what the heck is wrong with you?"

Her fingers dug into the blue fabric of his shirt, almost like claws. "You  _disappeared_ ," she ground out. "In the middle of class. You didn't walk out like Yuu-kun, you didn't come back and a bunch of kids are now statues in the middle of the room made of wood and no one can move them. No one. I saw them bringing  _construction tools_  into the school."

"Mami," Tagiru began, eyes darting to his mother. But her hands were on her hips, her lips pursed tight. Her eyes, amber as his own, narrowed and misty. Tagiru slumped helplessly in his current prison.

Gee, way to bring the guilt thanks guys. He hoped that Kokabuterimon was having a better time sleeping than he was here.

"And Yuu-kun's hurt badly."

"I thought it was a concussion," Tagiru managed to say.

Mami pulled back to give a withering look. "Concussion are bad, idiot. He could d-" She stopped herself for a moment, chewing her words. "HE could get really hurt. His brain could swell up. After everything else, he doesn't deserve that."

 _No one deserves a concussion,_ he wanted to say, but Tagiru restrained himself. "He'll be okay," he tried to say. "It's more Miho I'm worried about. No one knows where she went."

Her eyes narrowed further. On the one hand, she let him go and Tagiru found himself peacefully able to breathe again. On the other hand, now he had two women in his life looking ready to skewer him for information and he was a terrible, terrible liar.

God was laughing at him he was sure of it.

"How do you know that, Tagiru?" Mami leaned to look at her. "Sudo-senpai hasn't been reported missing yet."

Tagiru swallowed spit. Then he shook his head. "What else would she be?" He forced his voice to sound defensive, not squeak with terror. "She lives down my  _street_ , Mami. All of us would have seen her make it home. The neighborhood wouldn't sound like old birds."

Ooh he was gonna get grounded for that one.

Mami squinted at him. "Do you know something?"

Bitter bile rose up Tagiru's throat and he iddn't have to lie or hide anything when it spat out, practically in her face. "According to you and your  _friends_ , I don't know anything."

She looked like she had been slapped. Tagiru could almost see the red mark forming on her face. "Tagiru-" she began.

But Tagiru was tired. He had just wanted to do something special, to just be different, to be believed in.

" _There was really a fight! I saw it!"_

" _There goes that pipsqueak talking crap again."_

" _Just ignore him. He's always like that."_

" _But that kid was hurt?"_

" _Who, Taiki?"_

" _Didn't his heart just finally give out?"_

The reality of it was that no one  _actually cared_  about people. Not really. Not enough. NO one had really reacted to the fact that the kind boy who visited-

" _Is your chest okay?"_

" _How's that arm?"_

" _You need some water."_

 _-_ Some random kid who went in and out of hospitals because his body was catching up with his enthusiasm. No one had cared that the guy had just dropped dead. No one, no one, no one -

"You suddenly started to care once you saw me in danger," he said, trying to reign in his voice and it was hard because Tagiru had never been good at controlling his temper. "Once you realized I wasn't just a dummy. You care now? Not back then? How about last year, Mami? You were there."

Her eyes widened and Tagiru didn't feel bad, he refused to feel bad.

"I'm not stupid," Tagiru added, fists clenching. "Just cause I'm not like you guys-"

"I'm sorry," she blurted out.

Tagiru's eyes narrowed, so much like the stink eye his mother was giving him. "That won't last long."

Blood ringing in his ears, he left the room and went to his.

…

Mami was just supposed to be an annoying girl. She was more than that. She was a liar, and a faker. If only it had just been the little things, the things that were petty but meant more than that at the time. It had to.

Because he knew things, saw things differently. That didn't make him a freak of nature or anything.

He laid in his bed, face in his pillow. He was trying to sleep, but without using his covers, Tagiru was having about as much luck as the homework from yesterday in his backpack was of getting done.

No one pursued him to his room except his guilt. It wasn't like Mami hadn't meant well, hadn't been trying to care in her own way. But he wasn't exactly in the mood for it. He'd apologize tomorrow, or later.

He did kind of expect his mother to come up. She didn't. He was alone, bar the beetle sleeping in the Xros Loader. It had never bothered Tagiru before. For some reason, it bothered him a lot more now.

Tomorrow, Tagiru told himself, he was going to start from the beginning. He was going to hunt from the beginning. Get powerful Digimon, get clues and save Miho. And say thank you and I'm sorry and all sorts of things.

First, though, he had to find out something important.

"Hey, beetlejuice."

There was a snort and a grumble. "The heck is beetlejuice?"

Man, this guy slept deep. Just like him. "Movie," Tagiru replied. "What's Paradise?"

"Paradise?" The Digimon yawned again. "Heaven. You humans talk about it, right?" There was a strange, sickening crack, followed by a yawn. "Digimon don't die like that. But supposedly it's where the goddess of the Holy Sand Sect once worshiped. The Code Crown is supposed to be there. Its master was supposed to be there. Any wish can be granted if you make it and are found worthy or something."

"Worthy..." Tagiru repeated slowly. "Something about this sat odd in his stomach. He couldn't quite put words into why.

"Yep." Kokabuterimon grunted his disapproval of being awake. "Catch is that Digimon can't go in there. Shoutmon, the King, made it that way on purpose. Only humans can enter and only humans can exit."

Well. That made a whole lot of sense.

"Can just anybody enter or something?"

Kokabuterimo yawned. "Nah. Don't think so. Or we wouldn't have a world at all. Can I go back to sleep now?"

"Lazy bot," Tagiru said, eyes accusatory. It didn't hold any heat. He was too sleepy to really think about it.

One thing was for sure: he had to get in there. Because if he brought that guy back, Taiki, he could have someone having his back. Gosh did he need that now more than ever.

The odd feeling still sat in his stomach.


	7. Gathering From the Ground Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: disturbing descriptive imagery, past violence, manipulated character, hints of m/m, past character death, unreliable narrator, decay, vomiting, and trauma. think that's it. this chapter was a doozy.

Sudo Miho opened her eyes once again. This time, there wasn't a school overhead. There was no grey and mottled ceiling. Instead, the world stank of freshly fallen rain and leaves touched less by human hands. This was not the city. The city, somehow, was quieter. Wherever she was now, she could smell the wind, hear the chirping of birds and the cries of monsters.

Despite her bewildered state, Miho smiled. It felt beautiful here, wherever she was. It felt like she was welcome here, on nothing more than merit and softened will and pity.

"I am glad you think so," whispered a voice. The sound of it seemed to come from everything and everywhere all at once, even from the abyss of pain in her heart. She couldn't explain quite what it sounded like, however, if there were anyone to tell. There were no correct words to do so. "You called me to this form. I am grateful it is to your liking. I have need of it now."

Miho frowned in confusion and reached for the glasses normally affixed to her face. She needed to see the speaker because she had no idea of what she was hearing. There were vague images, feelings of delight and relief at the words floating around. But there was nothing to see. What she could look at was crisp and clear, however, down to almost the minute detail. The speaker, however, was nowhere to be found.

The voice continued to speak, soft and solemn. "As long as you're with me, my lady, then you shall not require such things ever again."

"I… see." Something inside of her swelled at the thought, at the blatant defiance of everything she had grown up with. Everything that was normal to her was gone away. "That… that sounds wonderful." There was something underneath of course, a catch to the unlocked door. And yet to her, there was no choice. Where else would she go? Back? Something told her that she couldn't do that. Something told her that what she had done up until now was something that couldn't be rectified or forgiven or changed.

 _Oh._  Now she did remember. She had finally taken matters into her own hands. She had stopped playing fair.

_That's murder, cap!_

So what if it was? It was still forgiven if a man murdered a woman, right? It was still forgiven if a man destroyed another man or a woman destroyed another woman. It was okay to destroy the futures of people in every way but physically. Why? What was the difference?

The answer was really clear in the end to her: it was enforced.

"We do not believe so."

Miho sighed and smiled dreamily at the air at the answer. Her eyes at this point were glassy with pleasure. She would never have to deal with being lower than able-bodied people in that way again. Her mother and father would have less to budget even. Less of a burden. "And, and everyone else?"

Her wish danced at the back of her mind, doing a quick step mockingly whenever she tried to think too hard about just what it was. Just what it entailed in the future made her think of something clotted. It was almost like a cream but red. It was a thick, haunting, amazing  _red._

The air rustled. It trembled and rustled like there was something buried in its trunk. There was a thick and heavy squelch somewhere behind where she lay. She thought that for a moment, she knew what it was.

Then the voice returned, cooing and soothing like a bird. It felt like a hand was raking its fingers into her soft, short hair. It was like being small and safe in a crib cage. It was like her mother in a time that had no solid foundation, when everything had been nice and simple.

"For you? Whatever you wish." there was a brief pause, like the sucking in of a single breath. "As long as you give me what is owed to maintain this. As long as we are equal in all things."

Miho smiled and the smile was all teeth and shadowy promise. "I will…"

Beneath her, the heavy form of Ceresmon lowered its wings deeper into the quartz-warped earth. It resisted at first, tied to its earth geography still. Soon, however, vines and earth and willpower were victorious, the wings and talons sinking out of sights in merciless, sharp cracks. Once the deep forest returned to the earth, it seemed to flow over, connecting as tissue did, healing wounds that did not bleed.

The island slowly went still once more and the creatures that had been displaced returned to their quiet, gentle routine.

All but one, who stirred from slumber and did not wake until the end. Like the unfeeling shifting of plates, the volcano started its hissing wake.

Miho heard nothing of it. All she could think of was what she had unknowingly left behind, and the certainty in her head of  _good riddance_ to it all.

Ceresmon drank from her like nectar. At least, that was before a spider whispered into their ear. Then, of course, they were allowed to share.

Miho welcomed new friends.

* * *

Ryouma woke up in tears that night. Pain pressed his bones together, turning the rest of him into a ball of raw nerve endings and tearing putty.

The sky was still dark and the air rang with the sounds of his mother's piano on record from his old-fashioned radio. He listened to the soft sounds and let his fingers dance on air to drown out the sound of his racing heart. It was that or sob because everything burned him, every breath was absolute torture. He couldn't dare. His mother didn't deserve to be woken up by him and be lied to, right to her face at that.

The night breeze was not cold enough. It made the sweat on the back of his neck all the heavier like something else was leaving him instead. His back itched as the tattoo crawled, scuttling legs feeling like puncture wounds wherever it stepped. It mapped his skin, pincers clicking with hunger as it tried, feebly to escape once more.

"No," he whispered to it and to himself and to rebellion. "I'm not going to fall for you again."

_I can give him to you. Just let me go, and all will be well._

"But you won't," Ryouma said in that same whisper. "So there's no point in me asking." And where would it go once it was free of him anyway? To some other idiotic, innocent person who didn't listen? Certainly, there were plenty in this world, but none of them deserved to feel the vindictive pleasure of this monster, not even such a tiny piece of them.

It shrieked in his ears and his alone. Ryouma, accustomed to such, grabbed his Xros Loader from his bedside table and waited for it to end. Psychemon sat awake, his bright pink paws pressing where Ryouma's palm lay over the screen. He was as silent as ever, and now that was a treasure.

This would be a long night of broken promises.

At some point, as if brought to him by a spell, quiet footsteps padded into the room. If it wasn't for the slippers, they wouldn't have been hurt at all. Ryouma cracked his eyes open. "You're supposed to be in the hospital."

Yuu smiled at him, all soft things in the dark. "I'm supposed to be a lot of things." He placed his hand over his. "I have a very noisy stepmother who will pay for groceries, not medical. So I was discharged during the night."

"You should have said something." Ryouma made to sit up, but Yuu's other hand pushed him gently back down. Ryouma scowled, actually scowled at him. "I'm not an invalid, mister took a fall."

"Don't insult invalids," Yuu said absently. "They live an entirely different way of life. And you aren't in good health, you know."

"I'm not dying," Ryouma protested.

"You keep jumping into stupid situations, you will." Yuu smiled grimly. "There's a time and a place to be stubborn."

Ryouma didn't reply to this, closing his eyes and loosening his grip on his Xros Loader to twine their fingers together. "I'm not going to die like this."

"Taiki-san told my friends the same thing before taking a laser to the chest." Yuu was looking determinedly out to the night sky. "I only have a few people who matter to me. I don't want to lose another before I have to."

Ryouma smiled a little. "You're such a worrywart."

Yuu turned to him, periwinkle eyes sparkling like sequins. "Do something about it."

Ryouma laughed outright and pulled him down. This time, moving didn't hurt.

* * *

Tagiru, in the back of his mind, knew that he was dreaming. Maybe it was because he had fallen asleep fully clothed, drifting off to thoughts of success as a Hunter mixing with hurt and anger.

That would explain why it looked so red everywhere, even on things that should not be able to be that color. It'd explain why he was dressed for school and outside before the sun was up, anyway. Also, and most importantly, it'd explain why he wasn't at his house.

He was at his old middle school. The concrete cracks all oozed red. The air was hot and thick, the heat of summer bearing down hard on his throat despite him knowing it was only spring outside. He knew it was only spring.

Or maybe he had sleepwalked all the way into DigiQuartz. According to everything he had heard yesterday, he had fallen asleep and woken up there.

"Maybe there  _is_ something wrong with me," he said to himself. The building in front of him gave a horrible  _creak._ Tagiru made a face.

"I have to go in there, don't I?" He groaned a little.

"You don't have to."

Tagiru blinked and someone was in front of him, sitting on the steps and staining them a rusty color. Like, he had just formed into existence in the span of his eyelids closing. Their dark brown hair was messy, contained mostly by green rimmed goggles that seemed held together by willpower and the cracks in the lenses. The gray eyes seemed like dirty puddles, despite the gentle, earnest smile. They would have had brown skin once, sun-kissed and healthy. Their clothes would have been neater, not torn at the hems to fit and fraying to pieces.

"Nothing says you have to," Kudo Taiki continued. He looked serene, despite also looking like death had warmed over him. "There's always a choice. Even in death, there's a choice of when and where and how."

Tagiru stared at him, at the older teenager whose chest was positively  _blossoming_  red. "That's not reassuring coming from a dead guy," he finally managed to say.

"Really?" Taiki looked at him, slow and measured and down slightly because Tagiru was still a little short, damn him. He was being beaten by a zombie! A zombie! "I would think it would be. It means you can turn and leave right now."

"Yeah," Tagiru agreed, slowly. Because he wasn't exactly sure of what he was agreeing to. "What'll happen if I don't go?"

"No idea."

Tagiru felt the sweat, fueled by anticlimax, drip down his neck. "Seriously?"

He got a smile of all teeth, joy and pearly whites refusing to turn yellow. "Seriously. The future is unpredictable. You not going may alert someone sooner. Or later. Someone may not know at all. Someone may act before you can choose at all. All you can be concerned with is what you decide to do." Taiki shrugged. "Or not do."

Tagiru swallowed. "I don't get it," he said after a minute.

"That's all right," Taiki said in return, still as serene as ever. The blood was still spreading. "People usually don't. I didn't either."

Tagiru winced slightly and stepped towards him, towards what he hoped was (and knew in his soul was not) an illusion. "You uh, you need to get that looked at. How long have you been wandering around here anyway? Yuu's worried about you?"

"He is." Taiki closed his eyes slowly. "Don't worry about this. It'll pass. Nothing can be done about it anyway." He opened them again. "Well, not by other people anyway."

"Were you always this cryptic when you were alive?" Tagiru grumbled a little. Even he could admit that he wasn't smart enough for this.

"I don't think so." Taiki laughed. "It's sad, but I really don't remember." His laughter turned quickly into a strange sound, like the howl of a dog in mourning. It was almost an inhuman noise, held in by laughter and time itself. "That is if I'm dead anyway. I think that's up in the air." Taiki paused and leveled him with a look that almost seemed stern. "Don't change the subject." The gray irises narrowed on him. "You do that a lot. I hear it, you know. I hear  _everything_  here, even things I don't want to."

"But this is important!" Tagiru felt hot all of a sudden, a terrible heat. "I'm not amazing yet. You are and you're… involved in something! Someone should know."

"People already do." Taiki waved a hand dismissively and it almost seemed to fall apart before Tagiru's eyes, unraveling into smoke finger by finger. "But they can't do anything. They'll figure something out though, they always do. So, to you. Again. We don't have long. I didn't keep you long last time because of that."

Tagiru stopped moving closer at that, air puffing from his cheeks. "Fine." For now. He didn't like this, this sort of selfless dismissal. It said Tagiru was helpless and he  _wasn't_. Not anymore.

Taiki looked at him with disapproval for a moment more. Then he smiled and picked himself up from the steps.

Tagiru made sure not to look.

"Your friend is in a location that hasn't been infected yet like Tokyo has been." At Tagiru's raised eyebrow, Taiki clarified. "DigiQuartz is a disease. That girl and her Digimon were able to do that because of the girl, no other reason. But now that she's done that and the Digimon is there, the areas are starting to change."

"Digimon can't appear on earth?" Tagiru asked. That was a boon for him. He wouldn't have to try to feed the terror bug."

Taiki chuckled wryly. "No, no, they can. They just tend not to come up to be for various personal reasons."

Damn.

Taiki pointed to the building. "So, you can look now or not. What do you want to do?"

Tagiru groaned outright. Back to the building, which was still creaking for the record. He didn't like the idea of creaking buildings. Who cared if they had culture? They also usually tended to be haunted. No thanks! But, then again, there could also be adventure in that building and he was all into that. If this wasn't the real world, it wouldn't matter as it was because the real building probably had seen better days.

So, he'd be fine. Right?

Tagiru stepped forward again. And then again. Over and over on trembling legs. He kept moving until he walked right past Kudo Taiki. He turned to look at him-

And there was no one there. Just the stains of blood left where he had been sitting. And this strange hollow sensation in his stomach.

"Oh god, I just saw a ghost."

Tagiru wished he had the ability to wheeze, but right now all of his willpower was focused on getting into that building.

Which he did. Reluctantly. All the linoleum of the floor was gone, leaving floorboards that crashed and whined and crumbled beneath his cheap sneakers. The walls had paint peeling and stank of fumes. Something yellow eked out of a few of them. If this was what happened when humans disappeared, he did not want humanity to ever leave.

Something laughed. Tagiru whipped around and saw nothing. With a shiver, he kept walking.

Soon, he reached his old gymnasium. Old banners rotted off of their holders. The seats hemorrhaged stuffing, well, what few were still there. The floor wasn't shiny anymore, but it hadn't quite decayed yet. There was a very large hole in the wall. As he looked into it, he saw the sky turning pink and illuminate something on the floor.

Something still.

Tagiru suddenly wanted to run away, wanted to bolt back home and under his covers and he did not know  _why._

And yet, all of a sudden, his legs stopped listening to him and went forward, Tagiru tried to drag them back with his arms but soon, he was close enough to see just what it was. That was when his body stopped moving, and he could fall back on his rear end.

He saw a green dress shirt and brown cargo pants, cut up and worn. Thick shoes, the soles have fallen off in some chaos. Their hair was half sheared off, burns layering across that entire side. One eye was-

Tagiru looked away from that.

Suddenly, Kudo Taiki was beside him again. He looked thoughtful, from sad and there were more red flowers on his clothes. The look on his face fell mourning and grief.

"Zenjirou," he said. It was some semblance of calm, some attempt at sounding stable and okay. It failed. "Why? Why here? Why would you come here? For me?" He laughed and it didn't sound like crying. It sounded close though. "For a rematch with me? Are you an  _idiot?"_

The last word came out a mix between a sob and a snarl and suddenly the person beside him didn't look like a person at all. Tagiru managed to glimpse him-

And then he woke up, shaking, to throw up for real this time.

He didn't want to see it again. Whatever he had seen, he was very happy his conscious mind had not remembered it.


	8. Something Normal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Roughly same warnings as last chapter.

School was closed for a week at earliest, Tagiru found out later that morning. It would have been nice to not find out from his mother as she found his pajamas covered in last night's dinner, but she handled it with such poise that Tagiru stretched her cheeks to check if she was a robot.

His fingers were still stinging.

He shouldered on and bravely ignored this however. His nightmarish dream was mostly out of his head, except for when he shut his eyes. Sometimes, he would open them and see splotches of bright

_fresh blood_

red where ever his eyes happened to be. That and the name – Zenjirou – lingered in his head.

Yuu would know. He would have to find the hospital he had been staying at. That meant talking to Mami. He couldn't do that just yet. He had yelled at her… pretty badly now that he had the the head to think it through.

 _She deserved it,_ a solemn voice reasoned in his head.  _You could have been going somewhere else. You could have been greater than this. But she just stood there and did nothing._

It maybe was a little melodramatic, but even now, Tagiru thought it was true. So he could look up who this Zenjirou guy was, or he could look up Yuu and his phone number or something.

Besides, it was a good excuse to get out of the house.

"Feeling better?" his mother asked him as he washed his dishes.

Tagiru nodded, managing a smile. "Yeah, the pickled stuff was real good this time?"

"Was it?" His mother wore an absent smile. "Good, I'll keep making it then. It's cheaper."

"Yeah!" Tagiru had no idea if that was actually true or not, but his mother could make a book out of being a self-sufficient housewife and he trusted her opinion on things so long as she enjoyed them. "Where's dad? I didn't see him this morning."

"Still asleep." She laughed. "He got today off because they need to use his desk to train a few new employees. Tomorrow too. We should go out."

Tagiru grinned and put a bit of a bounce in his step. "Yeah! That'd be awesome!"

It would probably be just a movie, just a few hours of a family with a cheap show and a homemade picnic bento but that hadn't happened since… well, he couldn't remember when. "I'll try and get home early then."

"You're supposed to be taking your mind of things, having fun."

He raised an eyebrow. "You always accuse me of having too much fun- no! Not my hair, not my hair!"

Tagiru almost forgot his dream. He really did. But then his Xros Loader beeped from upstairs and ruined it.

Back to a superstar's reality. He wasn't looking forward to being there.

…

Outside, the sky was gloomy and rainy. If it wasn't for the time of year, it would likely be muggier. Tagiru tugged sleepily on his clothes. Despite sleeping for a god forsaken amount of time, the wake-up call had drained the rest of him right back out.

"Ugh," he muttered. "Where do you even start with this Hunting thing?"

"It'd probably help to start in DigiQuartz," Kokabuterimon said from inside the Xros Loader. Now that Tagiru was forced to listen to it on a regular basis, he could hear the tinny robotic sound in the back. Unfortunately, he could also

Tagiru would have scowled at it if that hadn't looked stupid and weird in public. He could just try breaking the thing but that would put him so far backwards he'd be able to see straight again. And it would look stupid. More stupid.

_Whatever._

So he just ignored him, even though he was right. Jerk.

Besides, why would the guy want to go there?

Tagiru sighed. Loudly.

Someone laughed at him. "Wow, you're in a mood, and it ain't even been twenty-four hours!" They laughed again. "Wanna call it quits?"

Tagiru whirled, grabbing the nearest sharp object (which was sadly the nearest thick tree branch, the guy did not have much to work with) and pointing it at whoever had spoken. He would have had good aim if Tobari Ren was even thirty centimeters closer to him. The beanie wearing boy still raised his hands in a lazy peacekeeping gesture. Which only made Tagiru's eye twitch.

"Nice to see you happy and hardy too mate," he drawled, completely unconcerned.

Tagiru glowered at him for another few seconds. Then he dropped the tree branch. "Sorry," he grumbled. "Just paranoid."

Ren snorted. "If that's all you are, you're in a good place. Your pal got kidnapped by earth bird."

Tagiru huffed a little, forcing his shoulders to relax back to a normal position rather than half covering his ears. "Are you being nice?"

Ren raised an eyebrow. "Say that again and I cut off your nose."

Tagiru wasn't sure if he was joking because one of his hands went casually back to a pocket. Wasn't that supposed to be something that was only in anime?

Well, whatever. "Right, I won't. God forbid you're not a tsundere!" He almost stuck out his tongue but resisted the urge. People were already staring and looking away at the same time. Hmph!

If this was how all Hunters were, at least doing it with Kokabuterimon would ensure that he kept his sanity. Maybe.

Ren's raised eyebrow dissolved into strange, strained laughter, and he held his sides. For some reason that caused people to turn and look away. After a minute or two, he wiped his eyes and looked at Tagiru.

"You are one funny guy, you know that?" He cackled again, just for good measure. "How much anime do you watch?"

Tagiru decided very firmly not to answer that. "What are you doing here already?"

"Going to a friend's house." Ren put his hands behind his head. "Fellow Hunter, really. With that bird, we need to regroup and change strategy on what we get next."

"Who," Kokabuterimon said from his spot.

Ren rolled his eyes. "Details, you failed arachnid."

" _I'm a beetle!"_

"Whatever." Ren tugged his beanie back over his eyes. "Wanna come?"

Tagiru thought of refusing, he really did. Then his common sense won over. Ren was connected to Yuu. Yuu, having been in the war back then, would likely know who Zenjirou was, and have some idea as to why he would be dead on a gymnasium floor,  _on_  their middle school gymnasium floor. If he was there at all. Besides, maybe he could meet a sane Hunter at some point.

"Sure," he finally said. Tagiru grinned. "Are they nicer than you?"

"Airu?" Ren looked at him like he was the weird one. "Airu is  _worse._ "

Rather than screaming, Tagiru let out the tiniest squeaking sound. Ren cackled the entire way there.

…

Airu's house was actually a house, with a little brother's toys under the coffee table (to the mother's chagrin) and a mother who looked so happy to see people in her house, even if they were boys with the ability to be just as messy as her own little bundle of terror.

But then, Suzaki Mitsuko was nothing if not easy going, and she had a daughter who took math and science classes at the nearest online university alongside her regular classes. She was just in her rebellious age really. That was all it was.

Tagiru took a few seconds too long to enter the house, mainly staring obsessively over everything that looked so mundane and uninteresting.

"What are you doing?" Ren asked irritably as he pulled off his oversized beanie. He looked so hilarious without it, like his entire head was missing volume.

Tagiru tore away from what he was looking at, which was a very crisp lawn with flowers lining the front door. It almost looked  _American._  "I'm enjoying the last sight of joy and normalcy I'm probably going to get for the rest of my life."

Ren let out another cackle, this one positively  _demonic._  "Come on naive boy wonder."

…  _Was that a Batman reference?_ Regardless, he followed and let himself be dutifully examined by the mother. She was taller than his and much more casual.

"You're thin," she told him gently, without any real bite or violence in it. "Does your mother feed you?"

"More than she probably should," Tagiru answered without hesitation. He was not going to be a piece in the "Best Mother Olympics", thanks, no matter how polite he had to be.

It wasn't like it wasn't true anyway.

"Suzaki-baa-san, I think Airu's head will explode if we stay out here too long." Ren drawled lazily from the stairs. "Is the kitchen counter all better from last time?"

Tagiru almost recoiled. He was right in the line of fire in the middle of some mom's ability to throw something clear over her head. He glared at Ren under her fingers and he only got a daring smirk in return.

The woman, however, laughed, and freely. She chuckled right in the boy's face and patted Tagiru on both shoulders. Her cheeks were a bright, warm red, like a bag of apples.

"Never mind him," she said with a laugh. "He's always had acid for a tongue. Go on and get now, I'll call when it's time for lunch."

"Really?!" Oh god he didn't mean to sound like that. He wasn't desperate. Tagiru  _immediately_ backpedaled. "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that! You don't have to-"

She smiled and he fell, blissfully, silent for a moment. "It's fine, of  _course_ I can. Go on and join your friends now…"

"Tagiru," he said as fast as possible so he didn't say the bit he wanted to say. "Akashi Tagiru. Thank you ma'am."

 _They aren't my friends,_ he wanted to say, but the idea of insulting her politeness rankled. And a part of him didn't want to give up that hopeful bubble at the word. After all, his friends were weird, but Yuu himself wasn't too bad. So far. And they were all in the same place together. Surely that had to count for something.

He went inside and up the stairs to see Ren lounging on the clunky plaster side rail… lean on… thing. "What?" Tagiru said, raising an eyebrow and trying to keep that expression rather than glare through his embarrassment. He looked like his mother when he did and that just wasn't threatening.

"Nothing, I just love leaving people in the grip of Suzaki-baa-san," Ren said, knocking on the door. "Even Yuu thought she was going to hit his head with a plate before going after me. It was hilarious."

Tagiru decided not to think about that, funny as it sounded.

The door opened and a high voice, laced with ire and filled with amusement, led another shock of almost  _neon yellow_ hair curled into ponytails that looked forced into place with pints of hair gel and pink eyes that were just far enough from red that he didn't feel like he was looking at blood again.

Thank god.

"You finally hauled your butt over here," she said, mouth twisted into a scowl. "I think they were going to start necking if you took much longer."

"Necking?" Ryouma, he could hear the smarmy sound of his voice from here and it made Tagiru's skin crawl. "Necking? Do people actually use that word ever in polite conversation? Necking?" He was laughing now, and there was a thump like a fist hitting cloth. "Where did you hear that Airu?"

"And why did you say that? Ren will just ask to help." Yuu sounded unimpressed. "I have a head injury."

"What does that have to do with you leaning on him like he's a bony pillow?" The girl – Airu, Tagiru figured- sniped back. "Yuu, you need better taste."

"Better taste is money and a British feminist," Yuu said, breezy voice and letting out a yawn. "So I've got no bette- ow."

"Get this sentimental prat out of the room," Ryouma muttered. "Now."

Airu grinned. "It was worth these long moments just for that."

"Don't make my brain risk swelling up again." Yuu sounded muffled and Tagiru was torn between laughing and squeaking.

"It'll match your ego," Airu said before finally looking to the side and seeing Tagiru standing there, just as awkward. "You made this more awkward," she said without hesitation at all. "Can't you find girls with a reckless bone in their body?"

"You took all of them when you went to make a functioning hang glider out of your tinker toys and a bedsheet," Ren replied without hesitation again. This time something did hit him in the head and he almost fell over. Catching himself, he leaped into the room and Airu fell backwards with a shout of barely controlled rage.

Tagiru took that moment to step around them, nervously. It was a good thing he did because they smacked into the side closet. It was probably a good thing it stayed closed. Either they'd see clothes or…

Judging by the various pieces of metal and springs and gears, maybe there would be sharp and heavy things instead. He'd rather not see that.

Instead he looked at the bed, where Ryouma and Yuu were sitting. Well, Ryouma was sitting, Yuu was curled around him like an awkward slug. Or a tired slug.

Yuu raised a pasty hand wearily. "Yo. You're here to learn the next move?"

Tagiru shrugged. "Yeah pretty much."

Yuu nodded, eyes drooping shut and fluttering to stay open. "Sorry about Sudo-san."

Tagiru swallowed, feeling bile in his throat and nausea playing tricks on his gut. "I'm gonna bring her home," he said, voice awkward and tired, exhausted, heavy with the repetition. "So stop apologizing. It feels weird."

Yuu grinned and it struck him that those teeth looked a little sharp, even the ones that weren't pointed. "Sir yes sir."

"What sir," Tagiru grumbled, starting to smile. He scooted himself next to Ryouma, who hadn't even moved beyond the casual sweet smile that made his own skin crawl and looking back at the wrestling of Ren and Airu. "They gonna stop any time soon?"

"Oh, eventually." Ryouma waved a hand, looking unimpressed. "It's their way of showing love."

"Gross!" they chimed together, pausing for that too-long second before they went back to clawing and rolling about on the carpet. He didn't hear the sound of the mom coming in to yell at them, so they were fine.

"Platonic friendly affection," Ryouma corrected himself, eyes glowing with amusement. "Sorry, sorry."

Yuu rolled his eyes, glancing at Tagiru. "So, what do you need?"

Tagiru chewed his lip. He doubted it was worth asking how he figured that because seriously, this took too long as it was. "Uh… do you know a guy named Zenjirou?"

Yuu opened his eyes all the way, zeroed on him like a microscope lens. "Yeah. I do. Why?"

Tagiru rubbed his eyes "I had a dream about him and uh… Kudo Taiki I think."

Everyone turned at that to look at him. Yuu sat up, crawled over Ryouma (who let him!) and Tagiru all of a sudden  _felt_ his heart beating in his chest, fast and hard and hot. "You did?"

Yuu's voice was a whisper, hoarse and weak and  _longing_. But longing for what? Whatever it was, it was too thick and heavy for whatever Tagiru could understand.

Tagiru nodded, his head jerking like a puppet's rolling joints. "Yeah… he was… he was strangely happy. I didn't get it. But he was real positive."

"He's like that," Yuu agreed in that same voice. Tagiru turned away, because he couldn't tell him everything. He couldn't tell him about the clear, thick blood, about the dead eyed look and the curse in his eyes and how hoarse he sounded.

They were letting him believe he could save Miho. He could, he could maybe let Yuu believe that there was a Kudo Taiki worth saving. So Tagiru, saving face and feeling sick, plunged on

"And he said some weird stuff but, but that's not important now because he showed me my old school right?" He waited for the nod and continued. "And we went in the gym and there was this… this… this..." He stopped and swallowed and opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish. His throat closed, eyes squeezed shut and he remembered.

"Corpse," he spat out before the others could prompt him. "It's a corpse and he said it was Zenjirou and I don't remember what happened after that but he was dead!"

For a moment, the room was quiet. Then Yuu dove for his phone, Ren and Airu dashed from the room for something, and Ryouma placed a hand on his shoulder.

Tagiru? Tagiru thought profusely about barfing. Ryouma being consoling was not helping because now he could see it. Everything swam before his eyes like a multicolored sea. Because now he could remember all of it. He could remember gray pasty skin and rotting eyes, and how death really looked and for a moment Kudo Taiki not being Kudo Taiki at all.

Instead it was a monster drenched in silver, a monster with more arms than legs, with rows of eyes and no teeth on anywhere but its chest cavity and the cavity opening and opening until there was no jaw to unhinge-

And something small and fragile curled up deep in that abyss and crying, Tagiru had sensed for the first time with despair.

Tagiru did not throw up. Instead he cried like a baby until he got dizzy.


	9. A Boy and His Dog

Hinomoto Akari deflated under careful hands. She let out a happy sigh, relief filling her at the idea of being able to slump her tense shoulders  _at last._

An entire week's worth of hiking could not be ironed out by one good shower, be realistic here.

Thankfully, she had Tsurugi Zenjirou as a good friend/something-or other. Because there was no way she could ask Kiriha from America and Nene…

Nene had had three years to improve her skill with a sewing needle and sing for crowds. She didn't want to know what else she could do.

"Ow," she grumbled, jerked back to reality. "That one was bad."

They were using the sofa as a makeshift massage table, her head buried in the armrest as he sat on a plush stool. Akari couldn't see his face, but she could easily imagine he was rolling his eyes at her He was one to talk. She had salved his bruises for his last competition.

At some point, she had noticed he took his kendo so seriously that it was painful to imagine him doing anything otherwise and obvious he would ruin his chances at doing it. At that same point he had noticed that she was trying new things with no idea of what she was doing. So they'd had to come to some sort of compromise. Self destruction had been only one person's thing and he wouldn't be pleased if they ended up dead like he was, just because they had forgotten the same lesson they had tried to drill into his head.

"You don't live your life in the mountains, Akari-kun," Zenjirou chided, fingers going further away from her spine and digging into her shoulders. "I told you you were going to come back feeling like a rock on the ground kicked by an overly excitable student."

"Did you have to be so specific?" Akari groaned. "Okay I don't remember where I got that one."

Zenjirou snorted. "I doubt you remember half of these knots," he replied, thumbs driving a firm point into her back. "You're worse than me," he added as an afterthought.

"Liar," she accused, without any real heat. It was probably true.

He pinched her and she yelped, laughing and nearly kicking him. "Okay then we're even."

Akari looked at the stretch of wall and out her living room window, where there was

Before he'd died, Taiki had done all the reckless things, all the hyperactive and insistent things that helped people or seemed fun. Sure, it had been dangerous sometimes, most of the time if she was being honest, he was prepared for it, ready with thoughts and counter action and intuition that made people uncomfortable with how on-point it was.

But he was gone and people needed to have their own adventures. People had to live their own lives. They'd reap the consequences of that at some point, like it or not.

… She flopped her head back into her pillow. "I miss him," she said, like he didn't . Like none of them did. Like even Kiriha, the most male tsundere they all knew, wasn't thinking about him over his morning coffee and thinking about how stupid his new underlings are. "I miss the Digital World. I miss… all of it."

She missed her friends, who were just a call away if she really thought about it. She missed seeing the new kingdom Shoutmon had created, saving the world from itself. She missed Dorulumon and Cutemon.

How had they taken it, these past three years? How had any of them taken it? Did they know that humans had no central data bank to revive them when they died?

"At least you're honest about it," Zenjirou grunted. He scooted the stool over, moving down to her legs. This had been embarrassing at one point. Taiki had been one thing, they'd been around each other so much it was more insulting if they reacted to the idea of a lack of clothes. Zenjirou was someone she'd only met because of some lucky coincidence. Still, it was that or be in serious agony. She'd take the former embarrassment, thanks.

"Do you?" Akari decided to ask. They hadn't been as close so it'd be understandable if he didn't after three years.

"Of course!" He wasn't looking at her, but studiously at the tin of tiger balm that took up the entire palm of his left hand. "I think there would be something wrong with me if I didn't!"

"Taking it a little too far there, Zenjirou," Akari teased through the warmth in her chest.

"How dare you accuse me of such a thing?"

Akari could accuse him of a dozen more but before she could open her mouth to do so, her phone jingled out soft notes.

Zenjirou quirked an eyebrow. "Yuu?"

Akari gave him a nudge. "Pretty sure. I have yet to find a song that outdoes  _Flash of Gold*_ for him."

Zenjirou scooted back and went to wash his hands before helping her sit up. "Does he know you like considering him a magical boy?"

"I hope he's figured it out." Akari flicked his nose, wincing at the pain of moving but cracking her shoulders anyway. "Thanks for all that You want to grab lunch from the fridge?"

Zenjirou laughed outright as she leaned to pick up the practically frantic flip phone. "Akari-kun, the day I refuse your mom's cooking is the day you make puff pastry from scratch."

She wasn't even going to dignify that jab with a response. Prick. Instead, Akari opened her phone. "Yuu-kun, it's been a while." She forced herself to sound more cheery than half-dead from exhaustion. "Finally remembered you had my number?"

Yuu laughed and it sounded like water under a bridge. "Well you're the one who dropped off the face of the earth for a hiking trip."

"School hiking trip," she corrected, trying to breathe slow and even. There was a quavering note in his voice and the fact that Nene had not been mentioned or that he was trying to engage in small talk when he didn't mean to sent her hair on end. She waved at Zenjirou across the island of the kitchen and the cheerful grin on his face sobered in seconds. "I'm going to put you on speaker, cause I can barely move. Don't worry, no little brothers or parents around today. Something about my brothers' school being closed so they've been ordered to do some community work."

"Should-Should I call later?" he asked and Zenjirou heard it right when she switched to speaker phone.

Yuu's stuttering of entire words had stopped after the war.

"You need to talk now," she said as firmly as she could manage, easing herself back onto the couch and the plastic she had draped over it. No one would miss the poncho. "Spill. Zenjirou's here too. We'll get in contact with whoever we need to, mister honor student."

Yuu laughed again and this one sounded a little less terrified and mouselike. "He's there? Oh good." He took a deep breath and then eased it out.

The next time he spoke, Yuu's voice was all business, seriousness and composed. Took one too many lessons from Kiriha, this one. "You've been hearing about all the weird incidents lately."

Akari glanced at Zenjirou, who nodded over the hum of the microwave. "Like that school a few blocks over? Students stuck to the desk, windows broken, injuries, one missing? That house on one end that lost its whole fence and the right side fell apart?"

"That's a couple," Yuu agreed. "I've been waiting to talk to you about it. Kiriha-san asked me to because he's trying to be smart and selfless but we can't do that now. The Digimon are back and they're here. And I have reason to believe Zenjirou is in a lot of danger."

* * *

There was less gravity in DigiQuartz, but there was also a lot more heat. Which meant it was easier to run on everything but his lungs. HE thought.

Tagiru hoped, because he was terrible with the sciences. It wasn't like math which was improving a little more every day. He had no idea if what that Airu chick had told him was true, especially since she had admitted that she wasn't sure. But she was running effortlessly beside him anyway.

"I have a little brother," she said when they stopped to get a drink of water. "It was either I figured something out to catch him or he sat on me. Repeatedly."

"I'm so sorry for the loss of your dignity." He gulped down the water with relish. "So where are we going and why just us?"

"One of my traps went off down this way," she replied, pointing in the direction of the park. "I have little trackers on any of the larger ones. It's easier to make than to buy."

"Why would you make any of this?" It would be easier just to punch whatever it was that hit the trap and break things and that would stop them dead in their tracks!

Airu looked at him with narrowed eyes that were veering close to red. "Newbie," she declared, with a surprising lack of malice. "Not all digimon are able to take hits. My partner can't be like yours or she'd die or something. And she's too cute for that."

Tagiru wasn't sure the sweat on his neck was from the heat this time. "Cute?"

Airu grinned and started running again. "Anything can be cute in the right light except that streak in your hair."

"It's from my mom!" he protested.

"She probably wears it better."

… He was not getting into a fashion discussion. Tagiru just… wasn't gonna do that. Nope. He had some sense.

"Whatever," he said, as if that would actually end it. SO why traps?"

Airu paused behind a fence and Tagiru caught glimpse of a park with its swingset toppled over. "Like I said," Airu said, voice dry. "Oppossumon's not strong enough physically. She can counter with number attacks but even evolving doesn't do her much good. Ren's got speed on his side. Ryouma is better for long distance. Yuu-kun is the only one with any real firepower and that whole thing is pretty complicated. And since Yuu-kun can't be everywhere at once, I compensate with traps and you people."

" _You people_ ," Tagiru mimicked. "I feel appreciated!"

He knew the real reason they were out here. It was to distract him from whatever Yuu was talking about, in case he freaked himself out again.

"You'd better, today you get to hit things."

Tagiru immediately felt better. It didn't take a genius to figure that Kokabuterimon did not, considering he still hadn't left the Xros Loader.

Airu grinned again and put a finger to her lips. Tagiru was about to ask why when he heard a loud thud of weight. Then there was another, until something whirred and groaned.

Airu's eyes went wide for a moment. Then she smiled and they narrowed like a cat's.

"Good," she said somehow sounding like she was a cat who had gotten the canary. "It's back. A MetalTyrannomon. They've got good defensive hides. If we couldn't only have one Digimon out at a time, I'd keep him out for my own safety."

Tagiru watched the Digimon turn and bend down to pick up the fallen, moldy swingset and chew it to pieces with a single crunch of its teeth. It continued to chew and Tagiru watched with horrified fascination as it devoured the thing, wood splinters and all.

"Hungry guy," Tagiru couldn't help but whisper. A manic grin stretched his face. Yes, he wanted one of  _those_  for his birthday.

"He's not the best prize," Airu said, not even looking at him. "But he's pretty close. What we're after.. is who is coming next."

Tagiru almost wanted to run out anyway, particularly for the dramatic pause in the middle there. But common sense, and Airu's hand on the back of his blue shirt, kicked in. So, grumbling to himself, he sat down and waited for whatever it was Airu was actually looking for. What could be better than a giant cyborg dinosaur?

They soon found out as a blur of black rammed the dinosaur from the side. It stumbled with a roar and swung its tail to right itself. The blur jumped to avoid it, landing easily on all fours. Its black fur fluffed up in the heat, snout pointed, red eyes fixed on its target.

"A dog?" Tagiru said, incredulity filling his voice. "It's… tiny? You want that?"

"Trackers are dead useful you idiot," Airu said with slightly more rancor than he ahd been expecting from the scowl on her face. "But no, I'm not really looking for him alone."

"Dobermon, get back!" Someone shouted. "You're too close!"

The Dobermon grunted and backpedaled,, dodging another swiping claw with a groan.

"Just let me get rid of it," it said in a soft, commanding tone. "It's been all over this area in just a few days. It's dangerous, Hide."

"We have no guarantee that you can do it yourself," said the voice, clear as day. "We're gonna wear it down first to make sure. Can't have another Blossommon."

Tagiru raised an eyebrow and Airu shrugged.

"Ren makes gossip travel fast."

Tagiru scoffed and picked himself up from the ground. "This was taking way too long. "Hey, Kokabuterimon," he said with a grin. "Get ready, we're going in."

"Do I have to?" the beetle whined outright.

"Yeah!" Tagiru couldn't help his smirk. "You promised to help after all. Now, reload!"

Airu made to grab him but he was already gone. "Reload, Kokabuterimon!"

The beetle burst from his now outstretched Xros Loader like a rocket, racing forward at breakneck speed. His horn stabbed MetalTyrannomon right in the jaw.

Tagiru let out a cheer… immediately followed by a shout of horror as his Digimon was picked up and thrown right into the Dobermon! "What the heck?"

Airu groaned to herself. "Told him that guy had a thick hide…" She couldn't help but smile a little regardless. "Oh well, guess he'll make a good muscle man eventually..." she trailed off as he proceeded to leap onto one of the MetalTyrannomon's large claws.

"Never mind," Airu decided. "He's gonna die. Oppossummon, let's get him into position. Just in case."

"Okay!" Her partner leaped free of the device and scurried into action. Bless her.

Meanwhile, Tagiru hit a tree with the grace of a pigeon. Kokabuterimon groaned from next to him. "Well that was stupid."

"Shove off," Tagiru grunted. "You were supposed to evolve."

"I need you to push that, idiot."

"You what?"

"Do you know  _anything_?"

Someone, dressed in jeans and a russet tshirt, ran into Tagiru's line of fire and rolled him out of the way of the next claw. Tagiru yelped

"Watch it!"

To his surprise, the taller teenager actually grinned wider. "Guess I won't save your life next time."

They crashed to the ground and the other boy groaned. "Ow, yeah I don't think I will. That hurt."

Tagiru flushed with irritation but made to help him up. "Sorry dude. Thanks."

"No worries," he replied. "You're one of those super reckless types. You need all the help you can get."

Tagiru shot him a look. "Okay, now you're pushing it."

He got a laugh. "I like you. You're fun. Name's Hideaki. Wanna help me catch big and ugly? Last blow gets him."

Tagiru didn't even have to think about it. "You're on!"

Airu, having been moving behind them, was trying hard not to roll her eyes.

MetalTyrannomon, however, was having none of their antics. He lunged towards them. Kokabuterimon rammed him again in return, this time in his soft underbelly He swung again, planting a firm claw in the bruised skin and then grabbed with the other.

With a grunt, the small digimon  _heaved_  his enemy up into the air. MetalTyrannomon roared and flailed, making him tremble at the weight.

"Whoa," Tagiru managed to say. "When were you gonna tell me you could do that?"

Kokabuterimon hefted the Digimon over with a groan. "Wasn't gonna," he replied with a wheeze. "It hurts."

"You just threw a pretty strong one," Hideaki said, holding out his arm. Not for either of them, but for Dobermon to sniff and lick. "No fooling it hurts."

Kokabuterimon made a disgruntled noise but didn't disagree. He turned to Tagiru instead, glowering at him. "All right, flarebrain. Evolve me. You did it before. Should be easy. Quick, before he gets up. You gotta think about it. Or that guy won't miss. He's been playing around too much."

Tagiru looked at the digimon as it rose shakily on its thick limbs. "Well it's not any t-rex I've ever seen on tv."

Hideaki let out a snorting giggle and didn't even seem to care. Even without normal eyes, Kokabuterimon looked like he wanted to die of embarrassment right here and now.

"Focus," he grit out instead. "You're dead if you don't."

That was so melodramatic. That was rich coming from a guy who didn't even care that he'd freaked out. Not once, not ever! But still, that had been.. awesome. If they stuck together, they could do more, better, stronger…

 _More…_  For some reason, Tagiru found himself smiling, a big one that took up all his teeth, even the ones in the back. More sounded good, great, the best. If he got that guy, he would be a step closer… he wasn't quite sure to what. To Miho, but to something else too… something more important.

His hand felt like it was burning when he slammed it over the Xros Loader. And yet Tagiru couldn't help the giddy joy in his heart.


	10. They Are Children, At a Glance

For the first time, Tagiru got to see, and really feel, what evolution was like.

Simply put, it hurt like nothing he had ever felt before, The closest thing he could relate it to was the first time he had fallen into a bed of rocks and flayed his entire right arm with blood and bruises and broken skin. This time, however, it was his whole body and it didn't know how to stop.

Also it was too bright. Something in him was hissing at the sheer amount of light coming off of his partner.

"Who let the sun in," he managed to say as he fell backwards on his butt.

"You, genius," grunted the creature inside the light as it began to die away. The agony purpling his arms was slowly fading to a red, hot feeling and with it, Tagiru found himself able to see again. He glanced himself over first and foremost and raised an eyebrow.

"Hey I'm not on fire." He shrugged his shoulders to loosen them up and looked back at what had been Kokabuterimon. Then he proceeded to look up and up and up until his neck hurt. Plated in golden armor and now marked with strange purple curving lines all over his body. His face was at least a face now, but it seemed carved from stone, narrowed like blades.

"Not bad, big guy," Tagiru said, grinning wide. "Now, go punch that guy twice for me!"

The bug made a face and seemed to actually roll his eyes.

Then he spun on one foot, kicking the dinosaur square in the gun. MetalTyrannomon let out a strangled noise, his roar having been cut off by the impact. Then he flew backwards, slamming into the remaining jungle gym and the tunnels.

Airu winced. "Good thing Yuu wasn't here to see that," she muttered grabbing Tagiru by the armpits and making to haul him away from the ensuing chaos. "Oi, noodle!" she shouted. "Help me with him! Effort's not cute or fun, you know!"

She got a look of utter confusion for that but honestly, Airu didn't care. At least he came over and did what he was told to do.

"I've got legs," tagiru grumbled.

"Do you think you can move them?" Hideaki deadpanned.

Tagiru tried and groaned, legs twitching every time he tried to press them solidly to the concrete. "Okay never mind, carry me, it hurts."

"Powering an evolution for more than a minute hurts for the first time." Airu informed him. "Unless you're a  _General_  apparently. They don't feel anything."

Hideaki and Tagiru managed to look at her askance, the dog digimon hopping around and circling them through shock wave after shock wave of power as the two monsters kept trying to find an opening on each other. It only succeeded in minor dents on either side.

"Mostly because we had bigger pains to worry about." Yuu was sitting on a still standing piece of fence. His head was still bandaged, but his gaze remained sharp and firm on the tussle going on. His Xros Loader shone a brilliant gold.

"You're supposed to be resting, Yuu-kun." Airu said these words with a grunt, finally letting Tagiru drop behind some safety. Tagiru huffed his thanks.

Yuu let out a snort. "You're supposed to have caught this guy by now. You're  _slipping_ , Airu." His eyes flickered and for some reason, Airu blushed.

"Screw off," she mumbled. "He's got a wider radius than I gave him credit for."

Yuu laughed. Then he looked at Tagiru. "Think you guys can get him?"

Tagiru tried to stand, then gripped the nearest plaster. "Long as I don't gotta move," he mumbled, slumping back down.

Yuu regarded him like a specimen under a microscope and then he looked away. His eyes were rimmed a faint pink. "Then you'd best get to it," he said in that stern voice. "We've got people to meet you and some work to do."

Tagiru wanted to snap at Yuu that he wasn't someone's lackey, but something held his tongue. "Rightyo, boss."

Yuu laughed and it softened his face. "Call me Yuu-sama, ever and I will find a way to kick your head off."

"With sneakers?" Tagiru asked, succeeding in standing up the second time. He'd had to grip the bricks though as MetalTyrannomon headbutt his partner to the ground. The crash from that made him wobble.

"With socks," Yuu countered in a somber voice.

Tagiru took a moment to shudder at how disgusting that sounded before raising his voice and shaking a fist in the air. "Come on, Kokabuterimon, clock him into next week already will ya?!"

"I'm not a Kokabuterimon right now you moron!" The beetle still listened, raising one hand and shooting a laser from each finger. One went right into the giant dinosaur's mouth. It roared loud enough for Yuu to wince in pain.

"Whatever you are!" Tagiru insisted. "Just haul your butt, this hurts!"

The digimon choked out a shrill laugh. " _That_  hurts?"

Still, he listened. He fired more lasers and followed with a punch to the face. MetalTyrannomon raised his arm. A ball of light cannoned out. It snapped the Digimon's head back. MetallifeKuwagamon snarled in pain. He swung, kicking to the side. He was thrown to the ground for his trouble. The insect leaped onto MetalTyrannomon. He rolled, throwing him over to the side as he did.

"He needs to calm down." Yuu was still holding his Xros Loader, screen up. "Otherwise he's going to get squashed."

Tagiru glowered at him and looked back at the fight. "Keep on him, you old bug! Show him who's boss?"

Yuu sighed, sounding like a deflated balloon. "Gumdramon, you ready?"

"When am I  _not_ ready to punch something? Send me in!"

Yuu went to press the center button. Tagiru tried to lunge for him. "Stay outta it!" Tagiru snapped. "This is my fight."

"And it's sure going great." Yuu elbowed him in the stomach as the light shined brighter. "Chill you ball of stupidity. I won't take your kill."

Tagiru could almost lunge for his face. "Who's a ball of stupidity? If you actually  _told_ me things I wouldn't be like this."

"No instead you would be at home, safe." Yuu elbowed him again and Tagiru coughed. "But you're not. You're involved because you want to be and because you ended up here. A sane person would have ignored me. A smart person would have written me off. But you? No, you're an idiot."

"Then you shouldn't have talked to me, you weirdo!"

Yuu snorted. "It's because I'm a weirdo that I talked to you." And this time, he pressed the button. Gumdramon hopped out, flying at high speed. "Now, look, whatever happened in your past is none of my business. But Hunting is a  _team_ effort. It has to be, or people will get hurt or die. That was why we were all around. So you were willing to work with dead dog over there-"

"hey!" Hideaki shouted, eyebrow quirked. "Leave Dobermon out of this… lover's spat or whatever." Tagiru felt his ears flame red and Yuu snorted. "Besides, no offense but your tough guy ain't doing so hot."

"There's no strategy to it, is why." Yuu watched thoughtfully as Gumdramon began flying around MetalTyrannomon's head. "Also, these two hate each other so there's that."

"Stop talking about me like I'm not here," Tagiru grumbled. He pushed himself up. "Come on whatever your name is, you don't need them! Don't quit! We've got this!"

All encouragement failed him as the MetaTyrannomon's arm gouged into his partner's chest, glowing with light. Gumdramon squawked and flew away. MetallifeKuwagamon did not and could not, as the ball of light exploded in his chest.

Tagiru passed out.

* * *

Yuu was already racing down to check Tagiru's pulse. MetallifeKuwagamon fell with a shriek. But instead of not moving, he swung his foot. An energy blade burst into existence and cut right into MetalTyranno'mon's exposed snout. Gumdramon landed on his head, going ignored as MetallifeKuwagamon simply got up and continued to swing.

Slam.

Gumdramon flew off of his head and without notice. Which was probably good, because the second MetallifeKuwagamon was on his feet, he was punching any bit of the dinosaur he could reach. His expressionless face was now only accentuated by the red, unholy gleam in his eyes.

Gumdramon had not been around many of these big golden bugs, but he did know that they were not supposed to have red eyes.

They were also supposed to be calm, cool, tacticians. They had the golden armor that made people really strong.

This seemed less like a beetle and more like a wasp.

He flew about as fists met claws met lasers met-

"Gumdramon, get back," Yuu ordered. "Airu's ready." He paused. "Be ready to rush."

"Got it."

The weird thing about having a human partner was that his voice was clear as day, so long as you were right in sync. Their feelings were unfettered and clear to them, even if it wasn't a clear feeling at all. Yuu didn't have to hesitate for Gumdramon to get where he's going with his thought process. It was nice and weird and did not belong in a Digimon, an individual organism. It didn't belong to any humans either.

And yet there it was.

Gumdramon flew as far up as he could. Multicolored balloons floated down where he had been and with a strange gonging sound, proceeded to pop. By pop, he meant explode.

It was disgusting and red went everywhere. Gumdramon covered his face with his forepaws and arms to keep from getting blood in his eyes. He remembered the first time that he had seen blood like that, all over the place.

" _Told you you were a lucky guy in a lucky time, kiddo."_

He'd rather not deal with it again any time soon.

Same with the shrieks of pain and rage that were falling quiet after a few minutes.

"Was that many balloons that close necessary, Airu?" Yuu asked, voice wary and slightly hoarse.

Gumdramon risked a peek to look at Airu as she circled that weedy boy in green, her partner sitting on his like a weight. "To keep Lassie and her boy here, it was."

Both human and digimon grumbled something and Airu scowled. "I saw you trying to run, Reaper boy! We know who you are."

"Then you should know to stay the hell away from me!" Hideaki spat, struggling against the tight balloon strings. "What is this even made of?"

"Piano wire," Airu said with a smug smirk. "It took a bit of work on our parts but Oppossummon could do it. Now… you two are coming with me!"

Yuu made a face and Gumdramon rolled his eyes. He had no idea what she was talking about and he didn't think Yuu did either. Airu had been the one to go out here after all. Who knew what she was thinking about? He returned his focus to the two fallen monsters. They were groans of pain and whining incoherent snarls. Well, they were all tuckered out. Lucky them. He was still itching to  _break_ something.

Then an energy blast flew at him. He swung to the right. "Yuu!" He felt the heat on that one. "Little help!" The beetle was starting to get up.

"Sixteen seconds." Yuu soundeddistracted, fumbling with the second, crimson Xros Loader. "Getting the MetalTyrannomon."

_Ugh._ Gumdramon dodged in zipping bursts of flight as the blue lasers fanned out. He made a face as one nearly reached his tail. He smacked it away from his body. Then a hand lunged to grab him. He dodged again before a rush of warmth filled over his bones and skin and let his body grow back into the now familiar form of Arresterdramon.

Good thing too, because he was able to catch MetalllifeKuwagamon's next oncoming kick and slam him into the concrete.

On the ground, Tagiru's body spasmed and Yuu looked over. "Careful, Arresterdramon," he warned. "They're being parasites. The kid can feel it. We can't have him dying on us for no reason."

"That's his problem." Reluctantly, however, Arresterdramon did not skewer the bug and be done with it. Instead, he drew back and swung his tail, smacking the Digimon over and over until his arms fell back and he stopped twitching to get up. "That good?"

Yuu was below him at this point, the crimson Xros Loader in hand. It flickered green. Yuu nodded. "It better be. Don't need them both dying because they're both stupid." He raised it and the beetle-man let out a hiss.

"That's..." he croaked. "That's not yours."

Yuu smiled and once again, Arresterdramon noted how much he hated seeing that look. It was like one of the King's less popular councilmen. Not evil, but ruthless, but unforgiving.

"War changes people, Gumdramon."

Human children weren't supposed to look like that. Digimon children weren't supposed to be all banged up and scarred like the King was.

He almost missed what Yuu said next.

"I'm a good thief." Then Yuu whistled, a single, sharp note.

Arresterdramon dove without hesitation and finished the job.

This was his partner, ruthless, efficient. Amano Yuu, to see Kudo Taiki again, to make something right and find paradise, would stop at nothing.

It was a good thing that deep down, Gumdramon had discovered that he was the same way.

* * *

He remembered meeting Amano Yuu.

Gumdramon remembered seeing a smallish human rummaging through shelves at a store while he himself hid in the kid's toys until closing time. He remembered escaping the Abyss.

Well. He had called it that. It was an endless grasp of nothing after all and every time he'd tried to move too close to where edges might be. If edges existed. On the upside, he hadn't needed to eat or drink, just sit there and think about his idiocy.

If he hadn't trusted the wrong person. If he hadn't run off on his own…

If Betsumon hadn't abandoned him…

Gumdramon remembered crying because he was alone. He remembered feeling nauseous at the thought of doing it again. He remembered Shoutmon's face, solemn and knowing.

But knowing  _what?_

He remembered that voice… whispering, in his head.

_What does he know that he can't tell you? Is it about the other world? Is it about that power that you want so much?_

Gumdramon had sincerely doubted that. Shoutmon didn't care if people were strong or weak. But if they had decided to become strong, then he would give them everything they needed and if they didn't, it was the same.

_What if he's holding back?_

And what if he was? He was allowed to have secrets?

The voice hadn't liked that. It had tried harder. But Gumdramon knew better than to listen to voices in his head that weren't his. He shouldn't have entertained this one in the first place.

_Foolish._

Anyone who used foolish as an insult needed a dictionary thrown at him.

Whatever. The voice had seemed to have some kind of power because he had ended up in the human world at some point, over the sound of cackling laughter and thinly-veiled annoyance.

And within seventy-two hours, Amano Yuu had picked him up and carried him out of the story with no one seeming to care.

He had smiled the exact same way then when they were out of sight of the lamppost and the buildings and all these weird human things that no one really needed.

Well, okay it was dark out and humans had crappy vision so maybe they did need it.

"I'm going to guess you don't want to be here," Yuu had said pleasantly while chopping food with a knife. It was like it was easy for him. Like he was too at home with a knife in his hands.

"I have no idea how I  _got_ here." It was hard to be entirely acidic when food was placed in front of you an d you remembered that you had an appetite. "I was in Abyss Jail until three days ago." He did sound kinda… childish? Wisemon had a word for it, petulant, he thought it was.

"Abyss Jail?" The human had suddenly sounded baffled. Then it faded away. "For what?"

Gumdramon's cheeks had colored blue with embarrassment. "For… I… I went after criminals without a license. The King doesn't think vigilantes are a good idea."

"Ah. Well. He's right, there. It got him killed a couple of times, from what I heard."

Gumdramon remembered realizing how wrong everything was. "Who are you?" He remembered raising histail high, preparing to escape.

That was when Yuu had pulled his golden Xros Loader out from seemingly nowhere. "I think we're going to have a lot to talk about."

* * *

Yuu called out to Arresterdramon again but went ignored. The dragon was staring at where MetallifeKuwagamon had been. Then he waved his Xros Loader and the now Gumdramon dropped like a stone.

"Hey," he shouted, floating back up. "Thanks for the warning."

Yuu laughed. "Your fault for not listening the first four times I called for you. Now, come on, help me with this dead weight."

Gumdramon's expression turned mulish once again. Yuu once again wondered why. His Digimon -not his digimon, his comrade, his ally, not like Damemon at all- seemed to despise Akashi Tagiru more than any of the other people that Yuu had contacted. He took to Ren of all people like a duck out of water. And even Ryouma considered Ren a safety hazard.

Yuu's eyes narrowed. He'd been a bad judge of character once before and it had killed Damemon, seemingly forever. He wasn't going to do it again.

Gumdramon picked up Tagiru. "You just wanted me to carry him."

Yuu chortled. "Well, you're good at it. Why put you into things you can't do?"

"You gonna repeat that?"

"You gonna eat tonight?" Yuu shot back. He was grinning despite it all. There was something about Gumdramon that caused that in him.

Gumdramon, after a moment, grinned back. "I'd better, boss. Or else."

"Threatening."


	11. A Summer of Frost

It was cold outside.

Miho knew this because the roots and trees around her were shuffling closer together, their bodies absorbing all of the light they could take, their leaves wilting and turning the colors of flames and rust and the end of the end as it were. She knew without looking because she felt them moving beneath her feet. At first, the sensation had been strange. Now it was welcome and it brought the monsters along.

_The dragon's left its den_.  _She_  whispered that straight into Miho's head again and it was inviting and sweet.

"The dragon?" She herself could only speak out loud. Soon she wouldn't need to here, she had assured. Ceresmon and the spider had promised when she was complete that she would not need many human limitations anymore. Her hair was already changing, her eyes too. Soon, she would not be chilled or warmed so easily as by wind or temperature.

She couldn't wait.

_The dragon of the volcanoes,_ Ceresmon sang.  _We were friends in the old world, but he's been driven mad by this one. Poor thing._

That explained the sudden chill.

"Maybe we should save him too?" It was an offer. "When we can handle it of course. When we have gifts aplenty."

_And what will you do with such gifts,_  asked the spider, while Ceresmon pondered such a thing in her lilting, constant murmur way?

She had thought about it long and hard since he'd asked. Killing people was obvious, easy. To make sure no one could steal it and steal hers and look down on her. They would have to loop up. They would finally have to look up and acknowledge her. But those were also too easy.

World domination wasn't entirely out of the question either but… it was too passe, too obvious and expected. Miho was already going to be different from regular humans. She wanted to be so in more than just cosmetic ways.

She was still deciding. And besides, the spider wanted to rule the world, to devour all of the parasites and keep the rest in the web. Surely, she could be of assistance, to repay her debt. And she could help too. She knew how humans worked after all. She knew more than either of them.

Miho couldn't help her smile as she wandered across her dome of vines. Small creatures, small monsters, leaped about everywhere, playing and fighting. Eating and being eaten. It was so natural, so accepted.

Ah… but… A thought climbed into her mind on monkey paws. It would be lonely with just them to talk to and whatever happens to the world happening. Maybe… maybe she could bring some friends. Some potentials to… oh what was the thing in books… repopulate the earth?

Miho let out a laugh like bells and the monsters, her subjects, looked upon her. "I'm going to rewrite the world," she declared to them. "We'll make a better humanity!"

In that world, her little junior wouldn't worry about such normal things as rules and morals that didn't make sense. Everything would be  _truly_ equal.

They all blinked their large, silly eyes at her, then went back to the prior activities. Miho couldn't help but beam at them.

Then she yawned. "This transformation leaves me just so exhausted," she murmured, laying down in the roots and weeds and vines. Her earlier thoughts, her offer, had already been forgotten.

When Miho awoke sometime later (the concept didn't seem to have any meaning here) there was a newcomer. It did not have the large, guileless eyes of her subjects. These were beady and black and each step was a waddle on feet without legs.

"There's a walking poop in my den," she cried. But Miho found herself not disgusted. Far from it. She was overjoyed. A new friend was always welcome. "What brings you here?"

The monster smiled, lips and cheeks strangely round like balloon tubes. "You!" The single word had a strange, familiar cadence to it, like a student she had met in the past. "You are who I am looking for, yes! You are the apprentice, yes!"

"I am!" How glorious it was. She didn't sound like she was talking to herself with him around.

He clapped his robotic hands. "Congratulations! I am Damemon! I have been instructed to meet with you!"

"Oh?" Curiosity pulled her to sit up more, to give the monster her full attention. "For who? And why?"

"The spider has an offer for you! A bit of training, so to say!" Damemon danced about the den, body flashing in the few gaps of light left open in the trees. "If you can control the power and save the boy, you will complete yourself!"

It was so dramatic and there was still a part of her that whispered that this was wrong, all wrong but it only met with the rest of her who said, of course it was.

_What would be the point if it was right?_

"That sounds amazing!" Miho pulled away from the last vines wrapped around her ankles. "I'd love to try."

His hand slipped over hers and suddenly she was-

\- freezing cold, dead and alive in one breath and there was a voice, soft and male and sobbing his name and he was so happy that he remembered it and was able to live on, so  _so_  happy -

\- Stumbling a little but everything righted itself properly. "Sorry!" she laughed. "Must be the lack of vines."

The smile seemed dangerously close to dropping off its face. Then it flipped back, miraculous and weird at the same time.

"It is no good to fall before you start," he told her.

Before Miho could really acknowledge that sentence, she was floating in an abyss. Something seemed to lay in it, on its side. In the dark, she couldn't quite see, so she did not protest the too-large hand tugging her towards that strange pile of something on the ground.

Then, she was brought to kneel before him.

"This," Damemon began, voice soft to not disturb a sleeping child. "Is the body of Kudo Taiki. He was Chosen by the Code Crown, the pieces of the Digital World, to create anew." His hushed voice turned mournful as he spoke and she could almost see him frown. "Alas, the spider interrupted him and it was incomplete. There is a paradise, and none of us can reach it. That is why we need you. If you can heal him, you might be able to convince him to finish the job, to open the door."

"Why can't you?" Miho would be delighted to do so of course. She knew who Kudo Taiki was. He'd died mysteriously not too long ago. Tagiru had seen him save the world after all. He was a hero and he'd been reduced to this… and it smelled so metallic. So much like blood.

Damemon shook his head mournfully. "We cannot reach his heart. The spider guards it closely, even from its loyal subjects. It is afraid of Taiki."

"Afraid?" Maybe she shouldn't then. If it terrified her friends, it would sadden her but healing Taiki wouldn't make sense.

"Everyone fears what they don't understand, Miho-sama." He sounded grave for the briefest instant. Then he clapped his hands once more. "But it is no good to dwell on that. If he wishes to understand Taiki's way of thinking, who better to make it possible than you?"

Some of her rebelled, resisted, but sometimes words were honey and insects drank of that as much as humans did.

_Someone like Taiki-san would understand me too, right?_

Miho's eager smile and nod were just enough. The part of her that remembered herself started to weep out into her real eyes. But Sudo Miho didn't notice. Even if she had, it wouldn't have mattered. No matter how much a part of you wishes and dreams to be a better person, there is always something somewhere that will fail.

Beneath her gentle hands, Taiki's body didn't move. But Damemon saw a single sparkle in the abyss, the unseeing storm gray.

He smiled from his heart.

* * *

Tagiru opened his eyes alone and blissfully pain-free. But then, he also was at his house. He also was sore all over. And…

"Cap..." he whispered and immediately regretted it. His throat hurt like when he'd gotten strep at the age of five.

Miho was calling for him. It was weird, yeah, kinda creepy, but she had called for  _him._

Was it really calling if she had just seemed to think of him in passing? It felt like it was supposed to be important. And it really did feel like she needed him, though he couldn't imagine why. He had, after all, ended up unconscious and back in bed after going out….

Tagiru leaped up with a shout. "What am I doing here?" he yelled. Seconds after that outburst, he flopped to the bed again, groaning and curling up under his blankets once more.

Something underneath his pillow let out the same sound. "Did you have to wake me up?"

"Sorry, Kokabuterimon..." Tagiru said in a weary voice. He let out a cough. "Weren't we up… like, on a battlefield?"

"Unless big, grey, and ugly in here is a figment of our imagination, yeah we were."

"And..." Tagiru couldn't help but grin to himself. "And we must have won!" He pumped a fist but then paused. "Before passing out…?"

"We can go with that version of events if you want."

Tagiru rolled to his left so fast his neck cracked and he winced. Amano Yuu sat on his floor, Gumdramon laying on his lap. His tail twitched as Yuu continued to rub the free scales free of dirt. His inscrutable expression was back but he seemed in no hurry to leave.

"Uh." Tagiru cleared his throat. "Hi?"

"Welcome back from Berserker land," Yuu said in a pleasant voice. "Thought you'd gone and keeled over like some of the others. Glad I waited to see. No need to have you and yours rampage in your own house."

"Rampage…?"

Then Tagiru sat back. "Oh… I… we..."

"You got hotheaded." Yuu scratched his head. "My fault for egging you on, sorry. But you got hot under the collar and you and your partner aren't in good sync anyway, so you kept feeling his blows. SO you passed out and he lost it as a result of your emotions slamming into him like a tempest."

"Oh." Tagiru could vaguely see it now, feel his own, distant anger. Probably from Mami, from his parents, from all kinds of things. "I… sorry."

Yuu waved his hand. "I'm glad you're fine. But..." He glanced at Kokabuterimon. "You two have got to try and deal with… whatever this is, or you will get a heart attack."

"Deal with what?" Kokabuterimon floated from the Xros Loader and whoa did he look awful. His armor was dinged and dirty and one of his eye things was cracked. "I'm fine, it'll heal in there. I just wanna hear what brainiac's plotting now."

Tagiru didn't know whether to believe him or not but he subsided anyway.

Yuu nodded slowly. "It's like a forced reflex of being partnered with someone you don't like." He continued to clean off Gumdramon. (Tagiru was going to remember the look on that dragon's face as blackmail for years to come.) "If you don't get along, or sync up or any of that, you hurt each other. It's like trying to force you to care." He rolled his shoulders. "It's why Generals don't feel it. We've been around Digimon for so long in their world." He paused a moment and sprayed the cloth again. "It's relatively inconsequential when faced with having to look after an army's worth."

The room sat in silence as Tagiru tried to process that. A whole army of monsters like MetalTyrannomon, all listening to what you had to say…

"Wow," he said.

Yuu snorted. "Something like that. Anyway, not the thing. You guys still hate each other… and that's fine."

Tagiru turned his head to look at him. "But I'm exhausted." He didn't mean to whine. This was the second day of feeling like  _crap_ though. How was he supposed to help Miho if he kept ending up passing out?

"And you've barely known each other a few days." Yuu yawned. "Cut yourself some slack."

"But Miho is being drained to death." He couldn't tell Yuu that he'd had a dream about her, he'd get told that was called puberty and that would be just plain embarrassing.

"And that's not your fault," Yuu said. His hands had started to tremble a little but he didn't seem to notice. "That's on Ceresmon. Just like the thing that stabbed Taiki-san. That's not your fault."

"Are you talking to me, or yourself?" Tagiru couldn't help the question. For once it was out of genuine concern as Gumdramon rolled over to look at Yuu himself.

Yuu smiled mirthlessly. "i'll let you be the judge of that, all right?" His hands were still trembling.

"Right..." Tagiru nodded his head, thinking of the Taiki he had met, the mysterious one, the angry one, the one that for some reason sat in the back of his mind. "What was he like?"

"Dunno." Somehow, Yuu had known what he was saying before he had clarified it. "Nice. Stupidly nice. He wanted to help people just for the sake of helping, wanting to do something because he had decided that he could. He forgave people for terrible things. He trusted people when they'd pushed him into death He..." He exhaled. "He was inhuman, that was what he was."

Yuu closed his eyes. "But he was fragile too. He didn't really have anyone but a parent and some friends. He still needed us to support him. And we did the best we could. After…" He scratched his head. "Well, after almost all of us got in the way at least once."

"Even that Zenjirou guy?"

Yuu's mouth pulled at the edges. "Oh yeah. He told me that. But when Taiki-san starts moving, either you follow or get run over." He paused for a moment, searching Tagiru with those periwinkle eyes that felt like some new strange way to kill someone. "Kind of like you."

Tagiru felt his stomach turn into lead and he couldn't place why. His body chilled and he moved his blankets tighter around himself. "Can I take that as a compliment?"

Yuu smirked and began scratching at Gumdramon's neck. He got a sigh of relief for it too. "If you want. It's a double-edged sword."

Tagiru couldn't control his coughing laughter. "Then I'll take it that way."

"All yours."

They listened to the air conditioner wheeze along until Yuu lifted his head. "So," he said. "I bared my soul about Taiki-san. What is Miho to you?"

Tagiru rolled away from his phone, having been studiously deleting every single one of Mami's recent texts (he really was going to have to block her) to peer at him over the comforts of his bed. Why the heck was he sitting on the floor anyway? "I didn't tell you?"

"You probably did." Yuu waved his hand. "Or Ryouma, which means assume I have no idea. Our idea of talking isn't exactly-"

"Don't finish that sentence, my mom's downstairs," Tagiru demanded, finding a spare pillow. "Or I'll chuck this at you."

Yuu's smirk was positively demonic now. "All I was going to say is that it's not exactly orthodox but you decided to take it somewhere else."

"Your friend accused you of necking." Tagiru pointed at him with as much drama as he could. "I'm not taking any chances!"

Yuu snorted. "She wishes we did that in front of her."

"I need to bleach out my eardrums," Tagiru grumbled, chuckling the pillow."

Gumdramon, taking offense to that, threw it back at him.

Yuu laughed at his face. Then he smiled gently at him. "So… Sudo Miho."

Tagiru swallowed spit. "Yeah." He could feel Kokabuterimon staring at him through his one working eyepiece. "She… she lives not far from here. We were often babysat in the same house. She showed me how to mix paint." Saying it like that, this whole thing sounded stupid. "When I was called a liar, she believed me. She helped me prepare for my high school entrance exams… It was 'cause of her I almost got into a really good art school until I panicked and..."

" _It's your fault! You let them do that to me!"_

"Things happened." Tagiru fell quiet, looking at his hands. "I uh, she helped me apply here too. I would have dropped out if she hadn't."

Yuu nodded. "Sounds like a sisterly thing to do. I have an older sister, she'd do that."

"But we're not related," Tagiru said, voice firm. "So I want to pay her back, to help her, to get her through whatever idea she's got that murdering people's cool."

Yuu nodded thoughtfully. Then he picked himself up the floor. "Well, I've been here too long. I need to go make sure Airu hasn't considered using mouse traps on that other kid. And your mom probably thinks you have a concussion, which you don't."

Tagiru opened his mouth and then closed it so hard he felt his jaw hurt. "Thanks…?"

"Course." He made his way to the door. Gumdramon didn't move, "Tagiru?"

"… Yeah?"

Yuu didn't turn around. "Don't make me regret this."

"Regret what?"

But like a shadow in the dark, Yuu was gone.


	12. There, In the Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for non graphic violence, ptsd, emotional neglect implied.

Two people showed up at Tagiru's house two days later. He knew it was two days because he had slept for half of one and been shoved at homework for the other half. It had ruined their trip out but considering his father hadn't seemed to have much inclination to go out, he had to agree with mom. It was for the best. They could go out later.

But two people showed up at his front door, much to the confusion of his mother as she went off to her part-time job. Tagiru couldn't blame her. Her son hardly had friends over and now multiple? In the span of less than a week? Either something very good or very bad, was happening all of a sudden.

Tagiru would agree with her if he wasn't looking at Tsurugi Zenjirou, full of life and with one arm on a set of kendo supplies. Envy filled his gut. He could never play kendo. He wasn't precise enough with the weapon and his form was, in the words of the top student, atrocious. There was too much work to be done to fix it and they had tournaments coming up, so out on his behind he had gone.

Tsurugi Zenjirou seemed to have the same amount of energy as he did, if not more. He twitched, his voice was just above a decent decibel point (until he took an elbow to the face anyway.), and he grinned like a million watt bulb.

All in all? As far as this guy was concerned, Tsurugi Zenjirou was  _awesome._

"What tea brand is this?" Zenjirou asked through a thumbprint cookie. His friend was looking a mixture of amused and annoyed, a look that Tagiru recognized from his mom in times like this. He blinked and then shrugged.

"I hate tea," Tagiru said, shrugging one shoulder. "It's always too bitter no matter what mom gets so I don't drink it. And soda's too sweet."

"A man after my own heart!" Zenjirou's declaration was met with a strong elbow to the ribs. "Ow! Akari-kun! After all I've done for you."

"My contribution to society is giving people a few more years with solid hearing," Akari said, going back to her phone. She did it so effortlessly too. Most girls that Tagiru knew made playing with your phone seem like the better thing to do among peasants. She just seemed to be waiting for something. Likely for Zenjirou to quit making a mess.

Still. He didn't mind being nice to them, his mother had left them here without any supervision whatsoever, but the question remained. "Uh… who are you?" Tagiru looked right at Akari when he said this. "And how did you know where I lived?"

Akari shot Zenjirou a smug look. "Told you we should have called Yuu-kun about it first."

Zenjirou made a face. "Well, seeing as it pertains to my  _life_ , Akari-kun, so it was fair for me to just get to the point."

"Get to the person, not the point." She cleared her throat. "Anyway." She smiled at Tagiru. "Sorry, we do this a lot. It's this or therapy and that's money none of us have. My name is Hinomoto Akari. You saw my best friend in your dream the other day."

 _Oh._  Awkward. Tagiru flushed. "I… I'm sorry for-"

Akari shook her head, smiling through water. "I'm starting to get used to it. He has a bad habit of rippling through everyone in one way or another."

Tagiru chugged a swallow of water. Yuu had sounded sad and happy and confused when Taiki came up. Akari sounded fond and sad and knowing. Both had sounded unhappy, but happy at the same time.

_What does that feel like?_

Tagiru swallowed the envy on his tongue and ventured, "So Yuu told you where I lived?"

"He did," Zenjirou said with a grin. "He said that if I was the one at risk, I should meet the prophet for myself. It would be easier to break the prophecy then. So!" His loud voice softened so low Tagiru almost struggled to hear him. "Tell me everything."

Tagiru glanced at Akari. Akari, in turn, smirked.

"You think I have a delicate constitution, don't you?"

 _Oh-kay, she can totally compete with Cap in the tough girl department._ Tagiru decided not to answer that question and launched into every detail he could remember. It was all so vivid even days later, which was weird. Dreams were supposed to fade away when you woke up, not still be clear as day in your head even days later. It was so gosh darn weird.

"So what do you think?" he asked once he'd finished. "Anything you know from that?"

Zenjirou had gone strangely green. Akari didn't look much better. She was pale and picking at her nails.

Then Akari took a cookie and crumbled it into pieces. "There's nothing in there on how it happens. Just that it does and it's at the school in the DigiQuartz place, right?"

Tagiru winced. She had a point, and he'd kinda thought about it too but it was all he had. _I didn't ask to tell the story again anyway._  He couldn't help the sulky thought. But it was true. He was getting tired of telling it, even if it actually helped.

"At his old school though," Zenjirou argued. "Like, a spirit haunting a place because they remember it." He looked back at Tagiru, who was busily playing with a pillow so he didn't say something rude. "Did you go look at the school?"

Tagiru shook his head no. "They wanted me to hunt a Digimon first, in case I couldn't do it by myself."  _Which I couldn't apparently._  Well, okay, they couldn't but it still dug under his skin to have to be saved because he didn't have the experience. Because he apparently wasn't  _good enough._

"And you've got one?" Tagiru nodded and Akari stood up straight, heading towards the door. "Good. Then let's go."

Tagiru blinked. "Wait really?" She glanced back at him and he waved his hands. "I mean, sure, I can, but do you have Xros Loaders or anything? It's pretty dangerous right?"

"Plus this idiot can only have one Digimon out at any time without DigiXrossing." Kokabuterimon's voice sounded all too amused about this fact. "Which he doesn't know how to do yet."

"I've only gotten one Digimon, give me a break," he grumbled.  _And I wasn't even able to get it myself._ "Still. He's right." Tagiru scratched his head. "I'm not exactly a pro at this, so maybe we should call the others?" God that hurt to say. It was true but seriously. He got to school by himself, got average or so grades and heck he had hobbies. He didn't, well, he didn't need people. He had goals and everything.

Akari waved a hand. "If this is anything like our adventures, it'll be fine. We didn't even have Xros Loaders back then either."

Jealousy filled Tagiru's throat and then he shook his head. "How?" Yuu had made it sound pretty drastic and deadly after all. Like having a Xros Loader was beyond necessary.

Zenjirou shrugged. "We only were there for the first half, but luck, I guess. And we had skills that we could use that Kudo Taiki did not have. Strange as that may sound."

"It's not that strange," Akari muttered. "He's not a superhero, just fascination. Anyway, don't worry. We know the school. We can hold our own. We'll go through the earth side until we get closer. Then we can open a way through."

Tagiru nodded along to this. Then another thought occurred to him. "Wait… I don't think I can make a way in."

Akari palmed her face with her hand. "Seriously?" She went back to her phone and started dialing.

 _It's not like you can do anything either,_  Tagiru thought to himself. Then he glared at his hands. Clearly, they could do much more than him. They had been to the Digital World without any super artifacts and survived.

 _Not for the big part,_ said the part of him that kept gleefully deleting Mami's messages.  _Not for what matters. I can do what matters now and they can't. They wouldn't know anything without me._

That was true. Maybe having all these weird dreams wasn't so bad after all.

* * *

Amano Nene was grateful to DigiQuartz for one specific reason most of the time.

She could avoid the paparazzi.

She didn't do this often, but when she did it was so pleasant. The silence from a sincere lack of people was nice if disturbing due to the implications. The ability to not have to answer questions every time she went out her front door without a disguise was so refreshing. Hong Kong was a city like so many others in many ways, and everyone was around someone at some point in their time there.

Not for the first time, she was glad that Yuu was back in Japan at home.

Father hadn't wanted him to be. He himself worked almost constantly, so Nene was often left to herself when not under her agent's beck and call. So, of course, he wanted Yuu around to protect her.

Just thinking of that made Nene roll her eyes. If her little brother was protecting anyone from her, it was himself and his massive guilt complex. He was getting better at fighting, but he still wasn't exactly capable of protecting her. Seeing as her father hadn't been to the Digital World, she could forgive his concern most of the time.

Nene giggled to herself as she walked through the streets.  _He's probably so angry right now._  She felt bad for interrupting his work, really, but she'd been here for three years now. There was just no getting around the possibility that she could look after herself.

"I'd been doing it just fine at home before you," she murmured to the empty buildings. "You didn't have to worry then, did you?"

Then again, she'd also had her mother, back then.

 _I'm not supposed to think about that,_  she reminded herself. If she thought about that, she would think about other things, other deaths, other sad moments that as an idol, she couldn't afford to have mar her expression. She had to look happier than she was. Especially if she somehow ran into Yuu or Sparrowmon around here. DigiQuartz was in pieces all over the world, but Yuu had admitted there were ways to travel around there, so it would only make sense that he could find her when she was feeling down.

She took a deep breath. The air seemed like it was cleaner than on Earth the more times she did it. Even with the heat of seventeen summers in the Bahamas down her shoulders, the air was probably purified by more plants than humans knew what to do with.

Nene still enjoyed that she could sit on a decrepit bench and not be bothered. The Digimon never came into the city of Hong Kong. Unlike Tokyo where they had all been congregated in an awkward mass forced to work together, the Digimon in this area tended to avoid cities populated by humans if they could help it. It was much more comfortable for them that way.

Which was good. It left her virtually alone here. If Sparrowmon showed up here, however, she wouldn't exactly be displeased by it.

That was the truth, at least, until, she heard the sound of someone's footsteps.

Three years of not hearing bombs were not enough to make her lazy, especially with three years in a place she didn't know like the back of her hand. Nene rose in silence, leaping without rushing the bushes and moss into the shadowy alcove of the nearest building. She didn't dare peer out, preferring instead to listen and not risk being found quite as easily.

Nene had spent enough time on all sorts of terrain to know what footsteps could sound like, human or otherwise. They were humanoid likely, maybe a person. But she hadn't seen a Hunter in the year since she had found DigiQuartz, so it could be a dangerously good liar or a newbie. Who found Hunters and made them what they were anyway? Yuu had claimed it was an old man with a strange Clockmon, but since Nene herself hadn't met him and Yuu had barely spoken to him twice.

The footsteps continued. Leisurely, slow. So the person could be like her, not expecting any threat, not expecting much of anything.

Then, the owner of those footsteps stopped. There was the creak of metal under weight. Nene covered her mouth so she could breathe. Just in case.

Then the stranger spoke, and they weren't a stranger at all. "Three years later and I scare you away. Are you okay, Nene? Did something happen?"

Nene should have stayed hidden. She should not have reacted, tried to escape, done something other than this really. In a better state of state of mind, she wouldn't have burst out the way that she did.

But then again, she had just heard the voice of a dead person and therefore, she could be forgiven for being foolhardy, just this once.

Kudo Taiki sat where she had been sitting, one leg over the other. There was a great big stain of blood reddening the blue parts of his shirt. He looked older now, like he had aged and died and aged and died until he'd caught up with them and had stopped somewhere down the line and now didn't know what to do with himself. His gray eyes were looking in the entirely opposite direction from where she had been standing, but a part of Nene took that more as a kindness on his part, rather than he hadn't heard her. It just wouldn't make any sense otherwise.

"Taiki-kun," she said softly. "You're alive."

"Kind of." Taiki patted the bench next to him. Without hesitation, Nene sat down beside him. Thousands of questions clamored around in her brain. "I'm not entirely sure if I am or not. I just know that I needed to talk to someone that wasn't a part of the picture yet. Someone who would ask different questions and you were the first person I thought of. Akari and Zenjirou are already involved. They don't really know it yet, but they will." He let out a small noise for a moment and rubbed his eyes with a stained hand. "Sorry. Did I interrupt your private time?"

Nene tamped down all the questions, all the desirable need to just sit here and see this. She barely managed to respond with, "A little, but you've always been a welcome interruption to my thoughts, Taiki-kun. You know I concern myself too much and act too little."

Taiki smiled faintly. "I've always liked that about you."

Despite years of compliments and pithy words relegated to her appearance and well-rehearsed speeches, Nene still found herself blushing at the sincerity of that comment. "Don't be such a charmer."

Taiki flushed himself and then laughed out loud. "I'll try my hardest." He closed his eyes. "They're in danger, all of them, back in Koto. I want them to get involved but for some reason, nothing gets through. They probably don't want me to get involved more than I am. They already can't figure me out."

"They?" Nene repeated.

Taiki shook his head ruefully. "I don't think it has a name, but it's one of many and they don't know what to do with me."

"Were they the ones who-" She gestured to his body, rather than speak the words. Somehow, they felt all wrong.

Taiki nodded. "Yeah. They did." He still seemed perfectly relaxed, but the sadness that tugged his mouth at the edges was hard to ignore.

"Does he need me?" Nene didn't touch his hand, she honestly wasn't sure she could. For all she knew, he was just a hallucination from the air she was breathing and soon she would go back to the human world and feel humiliated and ashamed and lonely. Still, she looked at him, forced him to look her in the eyes by sheer willpower alone. "Does Yuu need me?"

Taiki took a deep, shuddering breath. She saw tears turning into crystal at the corners of his eyes. "Yuu needs people," he said after a moment. "But Akari needs you. She's going to die without you."

Taiki shuddered and the rickety bench trembled from the force of energy leaving his body. "I've seen it, I'm sure of it. He's going to kill her or get her killed. But if you're there, fate will change. That's how it works. You change one thing and it changes everything." He laughed, the sound low and sweet and similar to a ruler on a chalkboard. "But you never know which one is the right thing to change so I'm just changing anything that makes sense and that I can do." He did look at her now.

She had no idea why she had thought his eyes were still gray. All Nene could see was pitch black.

"Hurry," he croaked with a bitter broken smile.

Then, he exploded. All over her. She heard him sobbing in the deepest part of her brain where nothing went that she didn't want there.

Nene let out a sharp sob of pain and disgust. She spat out something she didn't want to look at nor think about.

Then she picked up herself and ran to where her apartment would be.

She needed to find Sparrowmon. She needed to put her work on hold.

But first, Nene needed a shower, and a good long cry. She also needed Kiriha, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to deal with him right now.

As it was however, he was the best liar they had now that Taiki, if he was alive, was certifiably insane. And prone to destroying himself and supernatural visions.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, hey guys remember me! She who makes noises about Xros Wars and Hunters? Well, I'm here attempting to post to this every week, Sundays from now on provided life works out. This one took ideas from my old story Marionette that didn't quite get off the ground. But here it is now~ So, this seems manageable. Expect updates to for the sake of peace soon! Thanks, guys! (Also let me know if this needs a rating upgrade.)
> 
> Challenges: Epic Masterclass Hunters list 7. reverse-verse, Three Sided Box, Diversity WRiting A/M L17, season rewrite boot camp - lonely, interseason boot camp - nauseating, AU diversity boot camp - grandfather, New Years Long Haul.


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